Nowadays it seems like everybody’s on some kind of a diet. Until recently, even public funding for epigenetic research had been leaner than a movie star on the South Beach diet. But with last year’s funding of the Roadmap Initiative and yesterday’s release of grant applications for the study of diet and epigenetics, things are finally looking a little more curvy.
The “Diet, Epigenetic Events, and Cancer Prevention” program will include R01 grants for up to five years, and R21 grants for up to $275,000 over two years, involving the National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Office of Dietary Supplements. Specific areas covered by these grants include:
- Studying diet, epigenetic events, and cancer prevention
- The association between DNA methylation and diet.
- Dietary factors impact histone posttranslational modifications
- Chromatin factors may be regulated by dietary factors
- Non-coding RNA, diet and cancer.
As food for thought (no pun intended, or should we say bun?), here are some examples of qualifying research topics suggested by the NIH:
- Gene/region-specific changes in DNA methylation and histone acetylation/methylation caused by bioactive food components.
- Dietary induced global DNA hypomethylation and gene-specific hypermethylation.
- Diet-induced changes in DNA methylation and histone acetylation/methylation and control of gene function.
- Temporality in DNA methylation patterns as influenced by bioactive food components.
- Bioactive food component regulation of epigenetic processes.
- DNA methylation, and the anticancer properties of bioactive food components.
- Bioactive food component modulation of ncRNA in cancer pathways using preclinical models.
- ncRNAs and histone modifications or DNA methylation as influenced by dietary interventions.
- Chronic alcohol consumption, DNA methylation and cancer.
Tired of starvation research diets? Visit the NIH sites for these grants: R01 grants and R21 grants.