Epigenetics and Cellular Memory

Overview & Synopsis

How is the information contained in our genes read, memorized and interpreted? What mechanisms control gene expression in an individual or across generations? The understanding of these mechanisms is crucial to knowledge on life forms. Epigenetics studies the influence of a genome’s cellular history on the way in which it is read. Since the sequencing of the complete human genome in the early twenty-first century, epigenetics has also given rise to the hope that we are “more” than the sequencing of our genes. This is probably why there is currently a huge upsurge of interest in this discipline.