What is "epigenomics"

n. (context biology English) The study of the effects of chromatin structure on the function of the included genes.

Epigenomics is the study of the complete set of epigenetic modifications on the genetic material of a cell, known as the epigenome. The field is analogous to genomics and proteomics, which are the study of the genome and proteome of a cell (Russell 2010 p. 217 & 230). Epigenetic modifications are reversible modifications on a cell’s DNA or histones that affect gene expression without altering the DNA sequence (Russell 2010 p. 475). Epigenomic maintenance is a continuous process and plays an important role in stability of eukaryotic genomes by taking part in crucial biological mechanisms like DNA repair. Two of the most characterized epigenetic modifications are DNA methylation and histone modification. Epigenetic modifications play an important role in gene expression and regulation, and are involved in numerous cellular processes such as in differentiation/development and tumorigenesis (Russell 2010 p. 597). The study of epigenetics on a global level has been made possible only recently through the adaptation of genomic high-throughput assays (Laird 2010) and.

Epigenomics is a peer-reviewed medical journal established in 2009 and published by Future Medicine. The editors-in-chief are James G. Herman ( University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute) and Jörg Tost . The journal covers all aspects of research on epigenomics and epigenetics and their implications for diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutics.