Substances that enter the body, such as food or chemicals, can make epigenetic changes in the germline that become inherited, affecting the health of future generations. In this episode, Heidi Lempradl discusses her work studying the effects of parental diet on their offspring.

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.