Dr Jirtle Delivers Commencement Address
North Carolina State University, Department of Biological Sciences
It is inspiring to see all of you at this ceremony today. Students, I want to congratulate you on your graduation from North Carolina State University, one of the top ranked universities in the country. This is a great accomplishment for both you and your family. Today, you are celebrating the end of your college education; however, commencement means “beginning” – the beginning of your career...
- Read the full speech here
May 6, 2016
June 11, 2016Tweet
Dr Jirtle receives Linus Pauling Award
Institute for Functional Medicine
At the Institute for Functional Medicine’s 2014 Annual International Conference, held May 29 – 31, 2014 in San Francisco, California, Randy L. Jirtle, PhD, was honored by receiving the Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award. The Linus Pauling Award has been presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) since 1996 to clinicians and researchers whose work has pioneered important principles in the Functional Medicine model. Jeffrey Bland, PhD, IFM Chairman Emeritus, had this to say about Dr. Jirtle’s selection as the 2014 Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award recipient:
“He is an extraordinary discoverer who crossed the boundaries of disciplinary myopia to become the father of environmental epigenomics. I also call him the father of nutritional epigenetics because of the important observation he has made as to the role that nutrients play in developmental biology and modulating the epigenome’s expression into the phenotype. In his work at Duke, with his post-doctoral student Dr. Robert Waterland, they made what I would consider one of those frame-shifting, epic, seismic discoveries that the nutritional environment of the pregnant animal will influence the phenotypic outcome of the offspring.”
- Award Lecture
May 31, 2014
- Award Presentation
May 31, 2014
- Institute for Functional Medicine
May 31, 2014
July 19, 2014Tweet
What's Next Health: A Primer on Epigenetics
Robert Johnson Wood Foundation
Each month, What’s Next Health talks with leading thinkers with big ideas about the future of health and health care. Nancy Barrand, RWJF’s senior adviser for program development, hosted Randy Jirtle, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison McArdle Laboratory, for a fascinating discussion about his work in epigenetics. Randy’s pioneering work in this field holds far-reaching implications for understanding and addressing the interplay between our genes and our environment. Randy answered follow up questions from Nancy to help lay out the basics behind epigenetics and what it might mean for our work moving forward.
- Infographic
July 16, 2014
- Primer on Epigenetics
July 16, 2014
- Interview
July 3, 2014
July 19, 2014Tweet
Radiation Epigenetics
Bernal, et. al. FASEB (Nov 2012)
These findings provide the first evidence that epigenetic alterations resulting from low-dose ionizing radiation (LDIR) play a role in radiation hormesis, bringing into question the assumption that every dose of radiation is harmful. Humans are exposed to LDIR from a number of environmental and medical sources. In this study, we show that LDIR significantly increases DNA methylation at the viable yellow agouti (Avy) locus in a dose- and sex-dependent manner. Moreover, maternal dietary antioxidant supplementation mitigated both the DNA methylation changes and coat color shift in the irradiated offspring. Thus, LDIR exposure during gestation elicits epigenetic alterations that lead to positive adaptive phenotypic changes that are negated with antioxidants, indicating they are mediated in part by oxidative stress.
January 19, 2013Tweet
NIH Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series
On April 18, 2012, Dr. Jirtle delivered a lecture on "Epigenetics: How Genes and Environment Interact" as part of the NIH Director's prestigious Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series.
August 9, 2012Tweet
Invitation by the Nobel Assembly
Dr. Jirtle was invited to speak by the Nobel Assembly at their 2011 meeting on Pharmacogenomics and Epigenomics in Clinical Medicine. His lecture was entitled "Environmental Epigenomics and the Developmental Origins of Adult Disease."
August 9, 2012Tweet
Person of the Year 2007 Nominee
Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and pioneer in the science of addiction, nominated Dr. Jirtle to be Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2007.
I'd select the Duke University scientist whose pioneering work in epigenetics and genomic imprinting has uncovered a vast territory in which a gene represents less of an inexorable sentence and more of an access point for the environment to modify the genome. The trailblazing discoveries of Dr. Randy Jirtle have produced a far more complete and useful understanding of human development and diseases.
- Time Magazine
November 8, 2007
August 9, 2012Tweet
Genome-wide mapping of human imprinted genes
Luedi, et. al. Genome Res. (Dec 2007)
Imprinted genes are at high risk for envolvement in diseases since a single genetic mutation or an environmentally-induced epigenetic change can alter their function. A genome-wide search for imprinted genes in the human genome, with the use of computer-learning algorithms, resulted in the identification of 156 novel candidate imprinted genes, fewer than the number predicted in mice and in many cases different. Consequently, mice may not be a suitable choice for studying diseases resulting principally from the epigenetic deregulation of imprinted genes, or for assessing human risk from environmental factors that alter the epigenome.
- JAMA
December 31, 2007
Scientists build map of imprinted genes - Nat Rev Genet
December 31, 2007
Imprinting: human genome gets full marks - Newsweek
December 9, 2007
A changing portrait of DNA
- ScienceNOW Daily News
November 30, 2007
Rule-breaker genes identified - Slashdot
November 30, 2007
Duke scientists map 'silenced genes'
- Associated Press
November 29, 2007
Duke scientists map silenced genes - Duke Med News
November 29, 2007
Duke scientists map imprinted genes in human genome
August 9, 2012Tweet
Negative bisphenol A effects on the epigenome blocked by nutritional supplements
Dolinoy, et. al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104:13056-13061 (2007)
In utero or neonatal exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a high-production-volume chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic, is associated with higher body weight, increased breast and prostate cancer, and altered reproductive function. This study shows that exposure to BPA during pregnancy changes offspring phenotype by stably altering the epigenome, an effect that can be counteracted by maternal dietary supplements.
- Kansas City Star
September 15, 2007
Study of epigenetics seeks to control genes' functions - Science News
August 10, 2007
Bad for baby: new risks found for plastic constituent - ScienCentralNews Video
August 2, 2007
Plastic bottle chemical - Forbes
July 30, 2007
Folate shields fetus against chemical in plastics
- Telegraph
July 30, 2007
Chemicals in plastics may harm unborn babies - UPI
July 30, 2007
Prenatal exposure may cause child changes - US News and World Report
July 30, 2007
Folate shields fetus against chemical in plastics - Washington Post
July 30, 2007
Folate shields fetus against chemical in plastics
- Duke Med News
July 29, 2007
Negative effects of plastic additive blocked by nutrient... - KSL
July 29, 2007
Study links mother's diet to child's vulnerability for disease - ScienCentralNews
July 29, 2007
Baby bottle chemical - NOVA ScienceNow
July 23, 2007
A tale of two mice
August 9, 2012Tweet
2006 Distinguished Achievement Award
University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Engineering
Dr. Jirtle received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering at the 59th annual Engineers' Day.
Dr. Jirtle happily straddles the fields of biology and physics, and once again is using his engineering training as he begins a project to understand the impact of radiation on the epigenome. His efforts may enable him to identify nutritional supplements that protect the body from low-dose radiation.
August 9, 2012Tweet