Epigenetic pathways to health disparities

The brisk pace of research into the intricacies of gene regulation, which includes the study of epigenetic mechanisms, is rapidly expanding our understanding of the ways in which environmental influences can affect these processes. Research has revealed that environmental exposures influence biology and health among individuals by modifying epigenetic markings that are mitotically stable, thus linking early experience with future health. In addition, a growing list of studies demonstrates meiotic stability in these markers, which allows epigenetic modifications to be passed on to offspring and even grandoffspring via germline epigenetic inheritance. These findings are revolutionary, as they reveal in greater detail how the environments that individuals experience can shape their biology and health across the lifecycle and even within lineages through time. One domain of inquiry that has received less attention in the epigenetics literature, but is of increasing interest, is the potential role of epigenetic processes as links between environmental influences and patterns of health and disease found within and