1. HORVAT, Marjeta. DNA methylation and suicidal behaviour: magistrsko delo. Ljubljana: [M. Horvat], 2018. 77 f., ilustr. [COBISS.SI-ID 1537825219] 2. HOTKO, Anka. Expression and methylation of the RELN gene in suicide victims: master's thesis. Ljubljana: [A. Hotko], 2017. IX f., 78 str., ilustr. [COBISS.SI-ID 1537581507] 3. VIDETIČ PASKA, Alja. Eksperimental epigenetics : materials for doctoral students of Bbiomedicine. Ljubljana: [s. n.], 2018. 22 str., Ilustr. [COBISS.SI-ID 33678041]
D.10 Educational activities
COBISS.SI-ID: 1537825219The symposium Taste of Genomics at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine, June 20th 2018, is organised by the Institute of Biochemistry, Medical Centre for Molecular Biology, UL MF to celebrate the 70th anniversary of prof. Radovan Komel. The programme of the symposium is focused on the diverse research aspects intertwining his long career. Many of his former students will present their work highlighting Prof. Komel's scientific pathway offering a unique picture of his scientific contributions over the years.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 295465728Introduction: Slovenia is amongst thirty countries with the highest suicide rates in the world. Completed suicide is defined as an act of deliberately ending one's own life. Suicide represents a complex psychiatric disorder with numerous environmental and genetic risk factors involved. Molecular-genetic studies have already shown associations of many genes with suicide, amongst them also genes that encode components of neurotrophic system. A member of the neurotrophin family, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), exerts its action through binding to two distinct receptors, neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (NTRK2) and nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR). BDNF plays an important role in the development of the central nervous system and in the regulation of synaptic plasticity in the adult. Previous studies have already shown an association of the BDNF and its receptors with the pathogenesis of various psychiatric disorders. Aim and methods: The aim of our study was to investigate associations of (a) SNPs in the BDNF, NTRK2 and NGFR genes, (b) methylation level of the BDNF gene, and (c) expression levels of alternative transcripts of BDNF gene, with suicide in a sample of Slovenian population. Genotyping and expression experiments were performed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and examination of methylation levels was done by means of bisulfite next-generation sequencing (NGS). Results: Haplotype analysis of SNPs in the BDNF gene showed an association of the haplotype C-A-T-T-C (rs7124442–rs10767664–rs962369–rs12273363–rs908867) with completed suicide, indicating that these SNPs on a haplotype level could play a role in suicide phenotype. Regarding the methylation level near/within BDNF gene, we found a significantly lower level of methylation of BDNF promoter I in blood of suicide victims compared to controls. With the examination of expression levels of alternative transcripts of BDNF gene, we found a higher level of the BDNF transcript NM_170731.4 in Brodmann area 9 of suicide victims compared to control subjects. Conclusions: The contribution of changes in individual genes in complex phenotypes is rather small. However, the cummulative effect of small changes in many genes and when environmental factors come into play may trigger suicidal behavior. Further complication in studying suicidal behavior is represented by commonly comorbid psychiatric disorders. Therefore at least partial overlapping of genetic risk factors between suicidal behavior and comorbid disorders can not be excluded, and thorough phenotypic characterization of study samples is urgent. Despite that in our study we were not able to show the association of NTRK2 and NGFR genes with suicide, we managed to confirm that BDNF represents a good candidate gene for further investigations of association with suicide. However, investigation of alterations in individual genes when studying complex phenotypes may not be the most suitable approach.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 2905643521. KOUTER, Katarina, ZUPANC, Tomaž, VIDETIČ PASKA, Alja. Genome - wide DNA methylation analysis in Slovenian male suicide victims. V: 17th ESSSB : abstracts of posters, 17th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal behaviour, 5-8 Sept 2018, Ghent, Belgium. Gent: Universiteit. 2018. https://www.esssb17.org/site/assets/files/1072/abstracts_of_posters.pdf. [COBISS.SI-ID 34027225] 2. KOUTER, Katarina, ZUPANC, Tomaž, VIDETIČ PASKA, Alja. Methylation and expression of COMT in brain tissue and blood in suicide victims. V: 17th ESSSB : abstracts of posters, 17th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal behaviour, 5-8 Sept 2018, Ghent, Belgium. Gent: Universiteit. 2018. https://www.esssb17.org/site/assets/files/1072/abstracts_of_posters.pdf. [COBISS.SI-ID 34027481] 3. KOUTER, Katarina, ZUPANC, Tomaž, VIDETIČ PASKA, Alja. DNA methylation pattern analysis in suicide victims. V: Book of abstracts : FEBS advanced course. [S. l.: s. n.]. 2018, str. 96. [COBISS.SI-ID 33994201] 4. KOUTER, Katarina, ZUPANC, Tomaž, KOMEL, Radovan, VIDETIČ PASKA, Alja. Methylation and expression of COMT and RELN in suicide vistims : comparison of brain tissue and blood. V: GORIČAR, Katja (ur.), HUDLER, Petra (ur.). Book of abstracts = Zbornik povzetkov, 12th Meeting of the Slovenian Biochemical Society with International Participation = 12. srečanje Slovenskega biokemijskega društva z mednarodno udeležbo, Bled 20 - 23 september 2017. Ljubljana: Slovenian Biochemical Society. 2017, str. 62. [COBISS.SI-ID 33514713]
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 34027225During the project we learned to use the latest technology for sequencing , namely the next generation sequencing. The first experiments for the project were carried out on the Roche Junior system, and the final experiments were carried out on the Illumina Mini Seq we have in our premises. This is an important contribution to our competitiveness, as we will be able to keep up with the most important researchers in our field, and also expand our research fileds.
F.03 Increased qualifications of the research and development staff