Serving epigenetics before its time

Eric T Juengst; Jennifer R Fishman; Michelle L McGowan; Richard A Settersten Jr

doi:10.1016/j.tig.2014.08.001

Serving epigenetics before its time

Trends Genet. 2014 Oct;30(10):427-9. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2014.08.001.

Authors

Eric T Juengst¹, Jennifer R Fishman², Michelle L McGowan³, Richard A Settersten Jr⁴

Affiliations

¹ University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. Electronic address: ejuengst@email.unc.edu.
² McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
³ Case Western Reserve University, OH, USA.
⁴ Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.

PMID: 25242336
DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2014.08.001

Abstract

Society prizes the rapid translation of basic biological science into ways to prevent human illness. However, the premature rush to take murine epigenetic findings in these directions makes impossible demands on prospective parents and triggers serious social and ethical questions.

MeSH terms

Animals
Epigenesis, Genetic*
Epigenomics / ethics*
Epigenomics / methods
Epigenomics / trends*
Female
Humans
Mice
Obesity / complications
Parents
Pregnancy
Reproductive Techniques, Assisted / trends
Risk Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Translational Research, Biomedical / ethics