Epigenetic Approaches to Allergy Research
Marién Pascual · Sergio Roa
2013
The standard dogma back in the twentieth century was that the human genome was 99 % “junk DNA”, and that most of the non-coding sequences across the genome did not hold much interest. However, many scientists across the world relentlessly confronted such plain hypothesis. As an old friend and colleague at the University of Salamanca used to say, “if it exists, it can’t be without a meaning”. As a recent outcome from such dissatisfaction accepting the existence of boring “junk DNA”, a worldwide consortium of scientists just published in September of 2012 the first results of the ENCODE project [1], an encyclopedia of DNA elements, including protein, RNA, and regulatory elements that have a functional impact in the circumstances in which genes are active. This roadmap of the genome can be explored by readers through the Nature ENCODE portal (http://www.nature.com/encode/#/threads), and for many it has been considered, among other things, a tremendously interesting repository of epigenetic information. We wrote this Briefs with the idea in mind that this is the time for clinical researchers and allergologists to connect with the ENCODE goals and use them as a first GPS to better understand asthma and allergy.