The program closes at the controversial cutting edge of this burgeoning new field. At the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, researchers are investigating epigenetic means to treat a deadly form of leukemia (see Epigenetic Therapy). In Washington State, a researcher finds that a toxin given to rats still affects their offspring four generations later, without producing any changes in their genes. And in Sweden, a study of historical records seems to show that the lifespan of grandchildren is affected by their grandparents' access to food.
Might these effects be epigenetic? Might our experiences, by changing our epigenomes, literally change the fate of our offspring ... and their offspring ... and theirs in turn? And might our own states of health owe something to the diets and exposures of our forebears?
Some researchers are already convinced. "You live your life as a sort of ... guardian of your genome," says Marcus Pembrey of the Institute of Child Health at University College London, a co-investigator in the Swedish study. "It seems to me you've got to be careful of it because it's not just you. You can't be selfish ... you can't say, 'Well, I'll smoke' or 'I'll do whatever it is because I'm prepared to die early.' You're also looking after it for your children and grandchildren...." Epigenetics, Pembrey says, "is changing the way we think about inheritance forever."
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