Overview

• University of Exeter researchers profiled DNA methylation in nearly 1,000 donated human cortex samples spanning six weeks post-conception to 108 years, with results published Sept. 24, 2025 in Cell Genomics.
• The atlas identifies pronounced remodeling of DNA methylation before birth, most evident in early to mid-gestation as pathways required to build the cortex activate.
• Fluorescence-activated nuclei sorting enabled isolation of SATB2-positive neuronal nuclei, revealing neuron-specific methylation trajectories distinct from other brain cell types.
• Developmentally dynamic methylation sites are enriched near genes implicated in autism and schizophrenia, pointing to a critical prenatal window of epigenomic plasticity.
• Authors present the dataset as a community resource for mechanistic follow-up, noting the findings are associative and require functional validation.