Anglo-Chinese collaborators launch the largest-ever epigenetics project

Epitwin aims to capture differences in epigenetic signatures between 5,000 twins, in a study that is expected to throw up important targets for drug development.

Epigenetics is the study of inheritable factors that have an impact on how genes are expressed, but which are distinct from an individual’s underlying DNA. For example, genes can be temporarily modified by chemical reactions that may occur either at random or as a result of lifestyle or diet, and this effect may last several generations.

The project is a collaboration between TwinsUK, the twin research group based at King’s College London, and BGI, one of the world’s largest genomics organisations headquartered in Shenzhen, China

The plan is to look at the methylation patterns of 20 million sites in the DNA of twins. Rather than looking at similarities as in previous studies, the team will be looking for differences that explain why many twins don’t develop the same diseases.

Initially the team will focus on obesity, diabetes, allergies, heart disease, osteoporosis and longevity, but the method can be applied to every common trait or disease.

“Finding the crucial differences between twins will lead us to the key genes that are being turned on and off, and so to the cause of disease, with great potential to find key targets for drug treatments,” says Tim Spector, Director of TwinsUK and Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, who is leading the project. “So far this type of study has only been attempted on a handful of twins, so we want to scale it up – one thousand fold.”

The Executive Director of BGI, Jun Wang, said, “Epigenetics is one of our major targets for the next five years – and this combination of our technology and resources with the unique twin resource will provide the world with an unprecedented dataset. We hope to unlock many secrets about human genetics that we don't currently understand, and to accelerate research and applications in human healthcare.” The TwinsUK project has data on 10,000 identical and non-identical twins gathered over the past 17 years.

The project is expected to cost around £20 million. The cost is being shared by the groups, supported by a Senior Investigator award to Spector for the Epitwin project by the European Research Council.