Description: Two epigenomic targets that potentially link environmental exposures to chemical and physical agents early in development to adult disease susceptibility are imprinted genes and those with metastable epialleles. Genes with metastable epialleles, such as the Agouti locus in the agouti viable yellow (Avy) strain of mice, have highly variable functions because of stochastic allelic changes in the epigenome rather than mutations in the genome. Genomic imprinting is a unique epigenetic form of gene regulation that evolved about 150 million years ago in Therian mammals. It results in monoallelic, parent-of-origin dependent gene silencing. Thus, only a single genetic or epigenetic event is required to alter the function of an imprinted gene, resulting in these genes being disease susceptibility loci. We recently identified the imprint control regions (ICRs) in the human, the human imprintome, and developed an imprintome array for determining ICR methylation. The potential importance of these two novel subsets of
epigenetically labile genes in human health and disease will be discussed.
About the speaker: Professor Randy Jirtle directed a research laboratory at Duke University from 1977-2012. He is currently a Professor of Epigenetics at North Carolina State University. Jirtle’s scientific interests include epigenetics, genomic imprinting, and the fetal origins of disease susceptibility. He is best known for his studies linking environmental exposures early in life to the development of adult diseases through changes in the epigenome; determining the evolutionary origin of genomic imprinting in mammals; and deciphering the human imprintome. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and edited three books. He was a featured scientist on the NOVA television program on epigenetics entitled, Ghost in Your Genes, and ShortCutsTV produced a British documentary based upon his research, Are You What Your Mother Ate? The Agouti Mouse Study. He has received numerous awards including, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2006); Time Magazine’s Person of the Year Nominee (2007); the inaugural recipient of the Epigenetic Medicine Award (2008); the Linus Pauling Award (2014); the Alexander Hollaender Award (2019), and the Cameron Lecture in Medical Physics (2023).
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Field Auditorium, Room 1112, Grainger Hall (9 Circuit Drive, Durham, NC)
This seminar will also be presented live via Panopto. Click HERE for the livestream.