The science of hope: an interview with Randy Jirtle

Abstract

In this interview, Professor Randy L Jirtle speaks with Storm Johnson, Commissioning Editor for Epigenomics, on his work on genomic imprinting, environmental epigenomics and the fetal origins of disease susceptibility. Professor Randy Jirtle joined the Duke University Department of Radiology in 1977 and headed the Epigenetics and Imprinting Laboratory until 2012. He is now Professor of Epigenetics in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. Jirtle's research interests are in epigenetics, genomic imprinting and the fetal origins of disease susceptibility. He is known for his groundbreaking studies linking environmental exposures early in life to the development of adult diseases through changes in the epigenome and for determining the evolutionary origin of genomic imprinting in mammals. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles as well as the books  Liver Regeneration and Carcinogenesis: Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms, Environmental Epigenomics in Health and Disease: Epigenetics and Disease Origins and  Environmental Epigenomics in Health and Disease: Epigenetics and Complex Diseases. He was honored in 2006 with the Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2007, he was a featured scientist on the NOVA television program on epigenetics titled ‘Ghost in Your Genes’ and was nominated for Time Magazine's ‘Person of the Year’. He was the inaugural recipient of the Epigenetic Medicine Award in 2008 and received the STARS Lecture Award in Nutrition and Cancer from the National Cancer Institute in 2009. Jirtle was presented the Linus Pauling Award from the Institute of Functional Medicine in 2014. In 2017, ShortCutsTV produced the English documentary ‘Are You What Your Mother Ate? The Agouti Mouse Study’ based on his pioneering epigenetic research. He received the 2018 Northern Communities Health Foundation Visiting Professorship Award at the University of Adelaide, Australia. The Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute presented Jirtle with the Research and Innovation Leadership Award in 2019. Dr Jirtle was also given the Alexander Hollaender Award in 2019 at the 50th annual meeting of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society.