When we talk about bio-individuality, we are saying that each of us is an individual combination of genetics, epigenetics, body sizes, genders, environmental consequences and biological profiles. Everything you need to follow the argument is succinctly provided, without distracting excursions into other fields. This section builds upon basic concepts with more advanced theory which might become challenging for some inexperienced readers. The methods by which genes makes these responses often involve very small chemical modifications (usually the addition of a tiny methyl group to one base of DNA). A child, less than three years old, is abused and neglected by his parents but subsequently is treated normally.

Nessa Carey takes us on a lively and up-to-date tour of what's known about epigenetic mechanisms and their implications for ageing and cancer. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in genetics and disease, as it explains the importance of epigenetics as a revolutionary new scientific field in a thrilling yet simple way that leaves you wanting to know even more! Another positive element in the book is that on several instances there is a pictorial illustration of the issue raised by the author so that the reader has the benefit to visually follow the sequence of events on the issue raised. Knowing how parts of it are dialled up or down depending on where in the body the cell finds itself and where the body itself happens to be in the wider environment is quite another.Until the turn of the century DNA was viewed as a blueprint or a template but since then there was a paradigm shift and we now correctly view it as a script and as such identical starting points may lead to different outcomes. If we drink a lot of alcohol an enzyme that metabolises it becomes more active – "upregulated" in the jargon.

Each cell in your body carries exactly the same genetic code, and yet you don’t have teeth growing out of your eyeballs and you never get toenails coming out of your liver. While the medical terminology is there, the concepts and information were presented in a fun and easy to understand manner. Nessa Carey is a visiting professor at Imperial College in London and currently works in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, where she has specialized in epigenetics for nearly a decade.The outcome is controlled by an early event (feeding pattern) which sets a phenotype that is maintained throughout the rest of life.

But I had a tendency to wander off on routes that intrigued me - degree in Immunology, PhD in Virology, post-doc in Human Genetics, academic position in Molecular Biology. Like Larsen and Atallah, this chapter draws extensively on well worked examples and nicely illustrates the use of Waddington's epigenetic concept in modern biological framework.In 1944, during the last months of the war, a Nazi blockade followed by an exceedingly harsh winter led to mass starvation in Holland. The term epigenetics has increased in use in the molecular, evolutionary and developmental literature in recent years. Nessa Carey has a gift for the expression of complicated scientific concepts in clear and simple terms and brings to life the personalities responsible for key advances. Explanations of development and evolution that focus on properties of processes or pathways, such as the Atchley and Hall (1991) model for mandibular development or Salazar-Ciudad and Jernvall's (2005) interactome for tooth development are epigenetic explanations. Such wandering isn't necessarily the best idea in academia but the breadth of experience is really valued in industry.