2022 Fall/Winter Highlights of Hope

RESEARCH
VAI scientists detangle the
environment’s effects on our health
The foods we eat, the water we drink, the chemicals to which we
are exposed all impact our health in more ways than meet the eye.
A key example of this is epigenetics, the processes that govern when
and to what extent the instructions in our DNA are carried out.
Here’s how it works: each of our more than 37 trillion cells contain
the same genetic instruction manual. But not all the instructions
are needed in the same cells at the same time. A heart muscle cell
only needs to know how to be a heart muscle cell and can skip
the chapters on how to be a skin cell or a bone cell. Epigenetics
helps ensure the right instructions are used at the right time by
annotating DNA with special chemical markers.
Now here’s the trick: epigenetics is much more flexible than our
genetic code — and much more likely to be influenced by factors
we experience in the environment. Some of these influences are
problematic and can contribute to disease.
That’s why understanding the complex relationship between
epigenetics and our environment is so crucial — it has the potential
to radically change how we treat and prevent diseases like cancer.
Unlike changes to the DNA itself, epigenetic changes, such as those
that cause sick cells to spread uncontrollably, can be reversed,
ushering in opportunities for powerful new prevention and
treatment strategies.
DR. NICK BURTON
DR. YVONNE FONDUFE-MITTENDORF
A Conversation About Health
& the Environment Hosted by
Carol Van Andel
November 16 — Learn more and register
at vai.org/health-environment-convo.
The environment in which we live, work and play
impacts our health in many different ways. From
the air we breathe to the water we drink, we are
exposed to a host of environmental chemicals,
some with the potential to contribute to diseases
like cancer — both now and in future generations.
12 | VAN ANDEL INSTITUTE HIGHLIGHTS OF HOPE