[Music]
our genes are what they are and we
cannot change our heritability or can we
you might have heard about genetic
editing changing the DNA code that we
are all born with in order to for
example cure diseases however have you
ever heard about epigenetic editing
epigenetics is a layer on top of the DNA
consisting out of very small chemical
modifications that we are all
controlling every day and these small
chemical modifications this extra layer
has a huge impact on how genes work now
let’s imagine that we all inherits a
genetic railway from our parents and on
this genetic railway drives the gene
expression train and a gene expression
train is driving towards this
destination of gene expression and this
can be the color of one’s eyes how long
their hair will be how intelligent they
are but also the risk on certain
diseases later on in life now
epigenetics is the layer on top of this
railway like an operating system for
genes just as traffic lights are for
trains and epigenetic editing changes
these traffic lights changes the way the
genes are controlled so by switching the
lights they can make a huge impact on
how genes behave epigenetic editing is
not changing the way genes intrinsically
are but how they are controls and what
they will eventually do in our bodies
today I am happy to tell you a little
bit more about epigenetics and
epigenetic editing now first let me take
you back to 1944 when in the West parts
of the Netherlands the Germans occupied
this part and during this time there was
a huge family
in place which is better known as the
hunger winter or Hong in winter and
during these terrible times something
interesting happens which makes us tips
balance towards using epigenetic editing
research has shown that women that were
pregnant during these times gave birth
to children with an increased risk of
diabetes while the brothers and sisters
of these children do not show this
increased risk so that means that there
had to be more than the genes because
the brothers and sisters as well as the
kids that were born during the hunger
winter inherited exactly the same
genetic Railway and exactly the same
gene expression train so there had to be
more and that more is epigenetics
different environmental conditions are
placing different traffic lights on top
of the genetic railways and in the
context of the hunger went through what
happens was that the environment of
hunger placed green traffic lights on
top of genes that were actually
beneficial to survive the times of
hunger for example genes that would make
these kids crave a high caloric food
however by the time these kids were born
the environmental conditions of hunger
were no longer there so the genes that
were switched on were also no longer
beneficial on the contrary they actually
increased risk of them to develop
diabetes while for their brothers and
sisters who were not born during these
environmental conditions the traffic
light state rats now this example
teaches us that the environment can
efficiently change the epigenetics isn’t
that fascinating the fact that such
small chemical modifications can have
such huge impact on how 10 disease well
that’s what we thought so researchers
were thinking could there be a way to
develop a system to deliberately switch
genes on and off we sure can
epigenetic editing uses the
reversibility and flexibility of
epigenetics to make genes healthy and
happy again without changing what they a
trick they are but changing how they are
controlled and what they will eventually
do in our bodies now I am using what we
know about the system in the lab to try
and prevent therapy resistance in breast
cancer breast cancer is the world’s most
common type of cancer in women and
seventy percent of the people that have
breast cancer their tumors rely on the
female hormone estrogen for its growth
now this is actually a good thing
because this subtype the 70% is very
treatable which is a good thing however
a tremendous amount of these patients
will eventually become resistance and
this means that the therapy stops
working this is a very urgent an unmet
clinical issue but the opportunity to
predict and prevent this resistance from
arising this gives hope to a more
successful therapy rates but why why do
tumors that are first very treatable all
of a sudden become resistant and why
does this happen to some patients and
not to others as you may guess by now
epigenetics are amongst the factors that
cause resistance and the way the tumor
does this is by placing green traffic
lights on resistance genes basically
telling the tumor to go go and be
resistant now what I do in the lab using
a system called CRISPR dicas I try to
place red traffic lights on top of these
genes telling the system to stop stop
being resistance now this system is
extremely flexible and also relatively
cheap that means that it can not only be
used to treat therapy resistance in
breast cancer but for many other
diseases the sky is not even the limits
and the future this system could be used
to
treat different diseases like Alzheimer
metabolic diseases it could even be used
to help organ transplantation I am an
epigenetic editor conducting the traffic
on our genetic railways but you and you
and you you’re all epigenetic editors –
every day you are determining which
traffic lights are being placed on your
genetic railways by the choices that you
make of course you don’t have control
over whether or not you will develop
breast cancer or if you will become
resistant but you do have control over
many other things by living healthy
relaxing well eating healthy exercising
not smoking all the term ins which
traffic lights are being placed on your
genetic railways and by doing this by
living healthy you can help place red
traffic lights on the C’s genes now in
cases where we don’t have control over
our environments we need to deliberately
and flesh efficiently find a way to
control the genes and we have already
figured out how to switch genes on and
off epigenetic editing is no longer
science fiction techniques like CRISPR
dicus can go a long way with helping and
curing some of the world’s most
devastating diseases but guys you don’t
need a lab to have huge impact on your
life live healthy how place these right
traffic lights on your genetic railways
because this will make your epigenetics
happy genetics thank you all
[Applause]
our genes are what they are and we
cannot change our heritability or can we
you might have heard about genetic
editing changing the DNA code that we
are all born with in order to for
example cure diseases however have you
ever heard about epigenetic editing
epigenetics is a layer on top of the DNA
consisting out of very small chemical
modifications that we are all
controlling every day and these small
chemical modifications this extra layer
has a huge impact on how genes work now
let’s imagine that we all inherits a
genetic railway from our parents and on
this genetic railway drives the gene
expression train and a gene expression
train is driving towards this
destination of gene expression and this
can be the color of one’s eyes how long
their hair will be how intelligent they
are but also the risk on certain
diseases later on in life now
epigenetics is the layer on top of this
railway like an operating system for
genes just as traffic lights are for
trains and epigenetic editing changes
these traffic lights changes the way the
genes are controlled so by switching the
lights they can make a huge impact on
how genes behave epigenetic editing is
not changing the way genes intrinsically
are but how they are controls and what
they will eventually do in our bodies
today I am happy to tell you a little
bit more about epigenetics and
epigenetic editing now first let me take
you back to 1944 when in the West parts
of the Netherlands the Germans occupied
this part and during this time there was
a huge family
in place which is better known as the
hunger winter or Hong in winter and
during these terrible times something
interesting happens which makes us tips
balance towards using epigenetic editing
research has shown that women that were
pregnant during these times gave birth
to children with an increased risk of
diabetes while the brothers and sisters
of these children do not show this
increased risk so that means that there
had to be more than the genes because
the brothers and sisters as well as the
kids that were born during the hunger
winter inherited exactly the same
genetic Railway and exactly the same
gene expression train so there had to be
more and that more is epigenetics
different environmental conditions are
placing different traffic lights on top
of the genetic railways and in the
context of the hunger went through what
happens was that the environment of
hunger placed green traffic lights on
top of genes that were actually
beneficial to survive the times of
hunger for example genes that would make
these kids crave a high caloric food
however by the time these kids were born
the environmental conditions of hunger
were no longer there so the genes that
were switched on were also no longer
beneficial on the contrary they actually
increased risk of them to develop
diabetes while for their brothers and
sisters who were not born during these
environmental conditions the traffic
light state rats now this example
teaches us that the environment can
efficiently change the epigenetics isn’t
that fascinating the fact that such
small chemical modifications can have
such huge impact on how 10 disease well
that’s what we thought so researchers
were thinking could there be a way to
develop a system to deliberately switch
genes on and off we sure can
epigenetic editing uses the
reversibility and flexibility of
epigenetics to make genes healthy and
happy again without changing what they a
trick they are but changing how they are
controlled and what they will eventually
do in our bodies now I am using what we
know about the system in the lab to try
and prevent therapy resistance in breast
cancer breast cancer is the world’s most
common type of cancer in women and
seventy percent of the people that have
breast cancer their tumors rely on the
female hormone estrogen for its growth
now this is actually a good thing
because this subtype the 70% is very
treatable which is a good thing however
a tremendous amount of these patients
will eventually become resistance and
this means that the therapy stops
working this is a very urgent an unmet
clinical issue but the opportunity to
predict and prevent this resistance from
arising this gives hope to a more
successful therapy rates but why why do
tumors that are first very treatable all
of a sudden become resistant and why
does this happen to some patients and
not to others as you may guess by now
epigenetics are amongst the factors that
cause resistance and the way the tumor
does this is by placing green traffic
lights on resistance genes basically
telling the tumor to go go and be
resistant now what I do in the lab using
a system called CRISPR dicas I try to
place red traffic lights on top of these
genes telling the system to stop stop
being resistance now this system is
extremely flexible and also relatively
cheap that means that it can not only be
used to treat therapy resistance in
breast cancer but for many other
diseases the sky is not even the limits
and the future this system could be used
to
treat different diseases like Alzheimer
metabolic diseases it could even be used
to help organ transplantation I am an
epigenetic editor conducting the traffic
on our genetic railways but you and you
and you you’re all epigenetic editors –
every day you are determining which
traffic lights are being placed on your
genetic railways by the choices that you
make of course you don’t have control
over whether or not you will develop
breast cancer or if you will become
resistant but you do have control over
many other things by living healthy
relaxing well eating healthy exercising
not smoking all the term ins which
traffic lights are being placed on your
genetic railways and by doing this by
living healthy you can help place red
traffic lights on the C’s genes now in
cases where we don’t have control over
our environments we need to deliberately
and flesh efficiently find a way to
control the genes and we have already
figured out how to switch genes on and
off epigenetic editing is no longer
science fiction techniques like CRISPR
dicus can go a long way with helping and
curing some of the world’s most
devastating diseases but guys you don’t
need a lab to have huge impact on your
life live healthy how place these right
traffic lights on your genetic railways
because this will make your epigenetics
happy genetics thank you all
[Applause]
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