The Wild and Wacky World of Epigenetics

Shirley M. Tilghman, Former President, Princeton University talks.
Discovery Public Lecture Series, HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus, May 2015

More info and videos

• Princeton University President Emerita Shirley Tilghman explores the underlying molecular epigenetic mechanisms that are revealing a wacky new world of gene regulation. If Gregor Mendel, the 19th century father of modern genetics, were alive today, his head would be spinning. The simple rules of Mendelian inheritance, which he painstakingly worked out with garden peas, have had to be substantially expanded and revised in the last several decades to accommodate the fact that genes are not nearly as well behaved as he thought. A pristine gene, free of any debilitating mutations, may or may not be expressed, depending upon parental inheritance, environmental influences, and even pure chance. This phenomenon, in which external factors influence the decision of a gene to be expressed or remain silent, is called epigenetics.
• Read Shirley Tilghman to Deliver Next Public Talk at Janelia, HHMI News, April 7, 2015. Video published on 2 Oct 2015 by HHMI Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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