​​I would like to introduce you to epigenetics. This very fancy word caught my attention while I was in undergraduate school and later on during my MSc. Probably the discovery of this part of molecular biology led me to pursue a PhD in epigenetics, as Steve Jobs would have said... connecting dots! 
 When I was in undergrad school, suddenly a very naive question popped out in my head: all cells in our body have the same DNA... however, the cells present in the brain and the cells in the skin are very very different... How is this possible?? It is almost the same as asking... how do genetically identical twins show a wide variety of differences? 

Authors
Camilla Soragni and Gwenaëlle Rabussier are Early Stage Researchers located at MIMETAS, Netherlands. Read their previous blog post here. 

By definition, 3D modelling is the process of creating a three-dimensional model of an object.  And what about dimensions? Curious to know how this conceptual representation emerged? Let’s go back approximately 570 BC, to its earliest development in Greek mathematics, with the Pythagoreans and their most famous theorem. ​

In our blog series “Science Untangled” we intend to explain science in simple words. And as my fellow colleagues already did before me, I will try to give it a go myself. I am currently working using mostly bioinformatic approaches – I wrote about how I got there in an earlier blog post. The biological background of my research was already covered in an amazing blog post by Clara. So, the question was: What can I explain? Bioinformatics? The problem is that bioinformatics approaches can vary significantly, the same way biology differs when trying to understand the behavior of fish in the Atlantic or trying to find binding partners of a specific molecule. Well, then where do we start and where do we end?

​I decided to go with the basis of bioinformatics, actually of every science in existence: Logic.

​When we talk about research, we are referring to the act of investigating and the main objective of the research of expanding knowledge.
When you think about a research project, you think about how to carry it out, the materials you need, and the time it requires.
 
Although there are many types of research, and iPLACENTA is made up of many different kinds of research projects, today I want to tell you about clinical research, in which the patient is the protagonist, and talk about: how we recruit patients.

​It is important to note that not everyone knows what the research is about and how much work it requires.

Being able to shelter a baby inside the womb for 9 months is something I have always found fascinating. Not only is it a beautiful result of natural adaptation, but pregnancy is also a risky situation during which an efficient compromise needs to be reached between the baby, who needs the mother’s resources, and the mother who needs to cope with the huge challenge of transforming her own body for the benefit of her baby. Maintaining this equilibrium would be impossible without the placenta, which performs an impressive number of tasks to keep both the baby and the mother safe from fecundation to birth. And yet, the placenta has never really received the attention it deserves. Not only by the general public, which often only has vague ideas about what a placenta does, but even more sadly, by the scientific community. The placenta is the least studied organ of the human body and still holds many mysteries. I wasn’t too sure myself about what a placenta did exactly before starting my PhD. I have to say that since then, I have never stopped being amazed at its multi-faceted capacities. With this article, I would like to put the placenta under the spotlight for a moment by sharing with you some of what I found are its most astonishing powers.

   

​Veronica Giorgione is studying the long-term effects of preeclampsia on the cardiovascular system. In her job, she meets and counsels mothers who have just had preeclampsia. Here is a summary of the advice she usually gives:

​This issue of our Science Untangled will focus on how we can use molecular biology to understand more about disease. In iPLACENTA we are interested in the causes of pregnancy pathologies; the juice of the matter is really to understand what's different between a healthy placenta and an unhealthy placenta that will cause the mother to develop a disease, putting both mother and baby in danger. 

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This blog post is about me and my personal experience on my way to uncover the black box called ‘bioinformatics’ or‘computational biology’. Many molecular biology researchers retreat upon hearing these words, because it is out of their expertise and also follows other rules than traditional lab work. I experienced that myself and I was one of them, until I took the risk to explore the ‘black box’.