Exposed: Environmental Echoes in Health - Epigeneticist Turned Microbe Hunter

Welcome to Exposed: Environmental Echoes in Health, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Van Andel Institute, an independent biomedical research institute devoted to improving human health for generations to come.

While the human body’s cells all use the same set of instructions, they can end up with wildly different features and functions. Beyond the information stored in DNA, factors within a person’s environment, including chemicals, microbes, and their diet, change how cells work. In this series, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to researchers from Van Andel Institute who investigate how the environment and behavior change cellular functions through epigenetic processes.

 

Microbes surround us, and they can have surprising effects beyond infection. In this episode, Nick Burton discusses his work discovering new environmental bacteria in backyards and how exposure to both bad or good bugs can affect an organism’s offspring.