Murrell Group

The term epigenetic refers to mitotically stable changes in gene expression that cannot be attributed to changes in DNA sequence. Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon whereby only one parental allele is expressed. Our goal is to determine the extent to which genetic and epigenetic variation within the imprinted Insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) gene is associated with an innate susceptibility to cancer and to unravel the molecular mechanisms that lead to loss of imprinting.