New way to identify heterogeneous brain cells by looking at epigenetic variation

Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD have developed a new way to identify heterogeneous brain cells by looking at epigenetic variation (the heritable alterations in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in DNA sequence).

With this publicly available new method (named "CETS"), it will be possible to generate neuronal profiles from DNA methylation data, which will simplify the study of several brain pathologies, including depression and age-associated disorders. The study, titled "A cell epigenotype specific model for the correction of brain cellular heterogeneity bias and its application to age, brain region and major depression," appears in the March 2013 issue of Epigenetics: http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/epigenetics/article/23924/.