Panetta Announces $502,691 Federal Grant for the University of California Santa Cruz

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), announced that the University of California Santa Cruz has received a federal grant totaling $502,691 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biological Chemistry Research grant will be used to study roundworms to understand how our diets and experiences might impact our descendants.

Scientists have long understood how inherited traits are transmitted from generation to generation via the DNA sequences of genes. They have also figured out how genes get turned on or off in different cells, so that different sets of genes are active in liver cells and skin cells, for example. This involves "epigenetic" changes that do not alter the DNA sequence, but add chemical modifications to either the DNA itself or the histone proteins with which DNA is packaged in the chromosomes. Epigenetic changes to gene expression can also result from environmental factors, such as diet or exposure to toxins.

A key question has been whether such changes can be passed across generations. The idea that epigenetic modifications can cause changes in gene expression that are transmitted from one generation to the next is known as "transgenerational epigenetic inheritance." It is a revolutionary concept, one that will be studied by Susan Strome, a distinguished professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at UC Santa Cruz.

"NIH is supporting this basic research in a model organism because it is the only way to crack open the mechanisms behind the correlations seen in human studies. You can't do these kinds of experiments in humans," said Strome. "We have developed a very powerful system for studying how epigenetic information gets passed between generations, and it gives us the ability to unravel the mechanisms involved."

With the new grant, her lab will address three main questions: What is the nature of the epigenetic information that gets passed across generations, how is inherited epigenetic information propagated and maintained through multiple cell divisions, and what are the consequences?

"It's exciting to see such ground-breaking research happening at UC Santa Cruz," said Congressman Panetta. "These NIH investments in our scientific community will result in medical innovations that will not only benefit the Central Coast, but our entire country."