Jones – epigenetics informing policy

We’re talking about the epigenome and this idea of sensitive periods and exposures. How do you do that in a way that’s not – that’s sensitive? Because these are not individual issues, these are societal problems often. We can’t blame individual mothers for growing up in poverty. It’s not their fault, it’s not the children’s fault. So it is one hope we have for epigenetic research is that given the evidence now that we can see this biological connection between environments and health. We can see it happening, we can see the residue that it leaves behind, that it might be able to inform policy statements. I mean the epidemiology has been there for a while.

The evidence that this connection is there has been for a while. But now we hope the epigenome is filling in the middle and adding a little bit more mechanism and biology to these connections. And hopefully it will be able to help implement some broader societal changes.