The Intersection of Genetics, Epigenetics, and Asthma

This dissertation aims to enhance our understanding of the genetic and epigenetic basis of asthma utilizing population-level, whole-genome genetic and epigenetic profiling. In my thesis I apply genetic and epigenetic tools to study the etiology of asthma clinical markers. I do this in twin families from the Netherlands. We first aimed to deeply characterize the nuances in variability of DNA methylation to better understand how to apply DNA methylation data to investigate complex diseases. We then investigated asthma, on the basis of clinical measures and on the basis of genome-wide polygenic risk for the disease, in relation to genome-wide DNA methylation profiles.