BrainCloud

BrainCloud maps temporal dynamics and genetic control of transcription and DNA methylation in the human prefrontal cortex across fetal development, early postnatal life, aging, and neurodegeneration using post-mortem expression and methylation data.

Key Features:

• Temporal Dynamics Analysis: Characterizes gene expression and DNA methylation changes over time, identifying a wave of transcriptional alterations during fetal development that reverses in early postnatal life and reappears during aging and neurodegeneration.
• Genetic Control Exploration: Tests associations between genetic polymorphisms (including SNPs) and gene expression, reporting thousands of robust individual associations.
• Population-Genomic Observation: Reports no correlation between the total extent of genetic differences among subjects and similarity of global transcriptional profiles despite millions of genetic variants.
• Datasets and Identifiers: Analyzes expression and methylation data from post-mortem human prefrontal cortex samples spanning fetal development through aging with dataset identifiers GEO:GSE30272 and dbGaP:phs000417.v1.p1.

Scientific Applications:

• Cortical Development and Aging: Provides a global molecular perspective on transcriptional and methylation dynamics across the lifespan in the human prefrontal cortex.
• Neurodevelopmental and Neurodegenerative Disease Research: Enables investigation of how genetic variation influences transcriptional changes relevant to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.

Methodology:

Maps gene expression and DNA methylation patterns across post-mortem prefrontal cortex samples to identify temporal reversals of transcriptional programs and performs association analyses between genetic polymorphisms (SNPs) and gene expression.