epigenomics

Editor's Note: Theral's mic malfunctioned in this interview. Fortunately the not as good backup mic did work and John has a good mic.  Our apologies.

John Greally joins us today. He is the founding Director of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Center for Epigenomics. He’s a pediatrician and a clinical geneticist with appointments in both at Einstein.

Last month, he was the lead author of a significant new publication in PLOS Genetics, titled Using Egpigenomics to Understand Cellular Responses to Environmental Influences in Diseases.

After summarizing the paper, John shares his journey in epigenomics over the past decade including a “crisis of faith” in the field. After taking a sabbatical from his own center and some cross-pollination with colleagues, John’s view of epigenomics evolved, particularly in the era of single-cell genomics.

Yes, says John, the environment impacts the genome, but the chain of causality is less direct than was previously thought. He and his co-authors on the new paper show that a larger cast of characters is involved.