Epigenetic Basis of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请申请支持将于2009年3月6日至10日在科罗拉多州的Keystone召开的由Xinyu Zhao和Peng Jin组织的题为“神经发育障碍的表观遗传基础”的Keystone专题会议。神经发育障碍在病因和临床表现方面都是高度异质性的疾病。过去的努力主要集中在确定这些疾病的遗传基础上，但收效甚微。由DNA甲基化、rna相关沉默和组蛋白修饰介导的表观遗传调节可以在“固定”的基因组上留下动态环境经历的印记，从而导致表型的稳定改变。本次会议将集中讨论生物医学研究的一个新兴领域：表观遗传调节如何影响大脑发育和疾病。会议将研究几种相关神经发育障碍中受影响的常见分子途径，并讨论产前和产后暴露于污染物、酒精、药物、营养和亲代护理等如何通过表观遗传途径影响神经发育。会议的总体目标是深入了解这些疾病中受影响的共同分子途径，并发现通过一次只研究一种疾病而错过的潜在治疗靶点。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is to request support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled "Epigenetic Basis of Neurodevelopmental Disorders", organized by Xinyu Zhao and Peng Jin, which will be held in Keystone, Colorado from March 6 - 10, 2009. Neurodevelopmental disorders are highly heterogeneous constellations of disorders, both in terms of etiology and clinical manifestations. Past effort has focused on identifying the genetic basis of these disorders with minimal success. Epigenetic modulations, mediated by DNA methylation, RNA-associated silencing, and histone modification, can imprint dynamic environmental experiences on the "fixed" genome, resulting in stable alterations in phenotypes. This conference will focus on an emerging area of biomedical research: how epigenetic modulation shapes brain development and disorders. The meeting will examine the common molecular pathways affected in several related neurodevelopmental disorders and discuss how pre- and postnatal exposures to pollutants, alcohol, drug, nutrition, and parental care, etc., may affect neurodevelopment via epigenetic pathways. The overall goal of the meeting is to gain insight into the common molecular pathways affected among these disorders and to discover potential therapeutic targets that have been missed by looking at one disorder at a time.