Interview. Epigenomics, imprinting and disease susceptibility.

Randy L Jirtle is a Professor of Radiation Oncology and an Associate Professor of Pathology at Duke University, Durham (NC, USA) where he has been a faculty member since 1977. He graduated with a BS degree in nuclear engineering in 1970 and a PhD degree in radiation biology in 1976, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jirtle's research interests are in epigenetics, genomic imprinting, and the fetal origins of disease susceptibility. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, including ten publications featured on journal covers. His enthusiasm for promoting the public understanding of epigenomics led him to create the website, www.geneimprint.org , which has been designated by the scientific publisher Thomson ISI as an 'Exemplary Website in Genetics'. Jirtle has organized five international meetings and been an invited speaker at dozens of others. He has delivered five endowed lectures and was invited to present his research at the 2004 Nobel Symposium on Epigenetics. He was honored in 2006 with the Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2007, Jirtle received an Esther B. O'Keeffe Charitable Foundation Award and capped off the year with a nomination for Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year'. He was the inaugural recipient of the Epigenetic Medicine Award in 2008.