While the eukaryotic genome is the same throughout all somatic cells in an organism, there
are specific structures and functions that discern one type of cell from another. These …

Traditional studies on the combined effects of genetics and the environment on individual
variation in disease susceptibility primarily focus on single nucleotide polymorphisms that …

Epidemiological evidence increasingly suggests that environmental exposures early in
development have a role in susceptibility to disease in later life. In addition, some of these …

Biomedical science has little considered the relevance of life history theory and evolutionary
and ecological developmental biology to clinical medicine. However, the observations that …

Despite a wealth of underpinning experimental support, there has been considerable
resistance to the concept that environmental factors acting early in life (usually in fetal life) …

Human biology includes multiple adaptive mechanisms that allow adjustment to varying
timescales of environmental change. Sensitive or critical periods in early development allow …

Evidence from both human and animal studies has shown that the prenatal and early
postnatal environments influence susceptibility to chronic disease in later life and suggests …

Epigenetics is an intrinsic mechanism that alters gene function–not by altering DNA
sequences, but by chemically modifying the DNA and chromosomal histone proteins …

Epigenetics has emerged as an important science with respect to health outcomes following
several intriguing studies during the past decade. Epigenetics represents the study of gene …

Epigenetic mechanisms are believed to play an important role in disease, development and
ageing with early life representing a window of particular epigenomic plasticity. The …