BiSC presents placenta genomics results at the European Congress of Human Genetics

This week there was the European Congress of the Human Genetics Society in Berlin where the most relevant advances of the year were presented, both in the diagnosis of minority diseases (diseases caused by one or a few mutations) and in the identification of genetic risk variants for common diseases (diseases caused by multiple genetic variants and environmental factors).

BiSC participated by presenting the results of the identification of genetic variants associated with different molecular profiles of the placenta. On the one hand, we presented a poster on the genetic variants, both of the mother and the fetus, associated with the levels of microRNAs, small RNAs that have regulatory functions and that are known to be dysregulated in diseases such as pre-eclampsia.

On the other hand, as part of a study by the Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) consortium led by the group of Dr. Nora Fernández, the identification of genetic variants associated with methylation profiles in more than 2,500 placentas has been presented and it has been shown how these profiles could be involved in phenotypes such as birth weight, height, or psychiatric diseases, among others The results highlight the great importance of the placenta, both for perinatal health and for health throughout life.