title: Epigenetic Regulation: A New Frontier for Biomedical Engineers.
abstract: Gene expression in mammalian cells depends on the epigenetic status of the chromatin, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, promoter-enhancer interactions, and noncoding RNA-mediated regulation. The coordinated actions of these multifaceted regulations determine cell development, cell cycle regulation, cell state and fate, and the ultimate responses in health and disease. Therefore, studies of epigenetic modulations are critical for our understanding of gene regulation mechanisms at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ levels. The aim of this review is to provide biomedical engineers with an overview of the principles of epigenetics, methods of study, recent findings in epigenetic regulation in health and disease, and computational and sequencing tools for epigenetics analysis, with an emphasis on the cardiovascular system. This review concludes with the perspectives of the application of bioengineering to advance epigenetics and the utilization of epigenetics to translate bioengineering research into clinical medicine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diabetes Complications and Metabolism, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, California 91016; email: zhenchen@coh.org.|Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: shuai.li2001@gmail.com , jshyy@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: shuai.li2001@gmail.com , jshyy@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering and Institute of Engineering in Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: shankar@ucsd.edu , shuchien@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Shankar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Subramaniam
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: shuai.li2001@gmail.com , jshyy@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: John Y-J
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Shyy
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: shuai.li2001@gmail.com , jshyy@ucsd.edu.|Department of Bioengineering and Institute of Engineering in Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: shankar@ucsd.edu , shuchien@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chien
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000639:trends*; D002843:Chromatin / Q000502:physiology*; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics*; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D005544:Forecasting; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational / Q000235:genetics*; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D022661:RNA, Untranslated
keywords: DNA methylation; chromatin remodeling; gene regulation; histone modification; long noncoding RNA; systems biology