{"id":94087,"date":"2019-07-24T11:22:26","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T18:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/darpa-grants-asu-up-to-38-8-million-to-create-epigenetic-tool-for-fight-against-weapons-of-mass-destruction"},"modified":"2019-07-24T11:22:26","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T18:22:26","slug":"darpa-grants-asu-up-to-38-8-million-to-create-epigenetic-tool-for-fight-against-weapons-of-mass-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/darpa-grants-asu-up-to-38-8-million-to-create-epigenetic-tool-for-fight-against-weapons-of-mass-destruction","title":{"rendered":"DARPA grants ASU up to $38.8 million to create epigenetic tool for fight against weapons of mass destruction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/darpa-grants-asu-up-to-38-8-million-to-create-epigenetic-tool-for-fight-against-weapons-of-mass-destruction2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Arizona State University has been selected to participate in DARPA\u2019s Epigenetic CHaracterization and Observation (ECHO) program. According to DARPA, the \u201cECHO program has two primary challenges: to identify and discriminate epigenetic signatures created by exposure to threat agents; and to create technology that performs highly specific forensic and diagnostic analyses to reveal the exact type and time of exposure.\u201d (Epigenetic changes are chemical modifications that affect genes, altering their expression while leaving the genetic code intact. Epigenetic changes can occur as natural responses to the environment but can also signal exposure to toxic agents or disease pathogens.) <\/p>\n<p>Epigenetics is coming into its own in the 21st century. DARPA describes the epigenome as \u201cbiology\u2019s record keeper,\u201d explaining that \u201cthough DNA does not change over a single lifetime, a person\u2019s environment may leave marks on the DNA that modify how that individual\u2019s genes are expressed. This is one way that people can adapt and survive in changing conditions, and the epigenome is the combination of all of these modifications. Though modifications can register within seconds to minutes, they imprint the epigenome for decades, leaving a time-stamped biography of an individual\u2019s exposures that is difficult to deliberately alter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/isearch.asu.edu\/profile\/88253\">Sethuraman Panchanathan<\/a>, ASU Knowledge Enterprise executive vice president and chief research and innovation officer, said the project fits with the university\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona State University has been selected to participate in DARPA\u2019s Epigenetic CHaracterization and Observation (ECHO) program. According to DARPA, the \u201cECHO program has two primary challenges: to identify and discriminate epigenetic signatures created by exposure to threat agents; and to create technology that performs highly specific forensic and diagnostic analyses to reveal the exact type [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}