From stem cells to the law courts: DNA methylation, the forensic epigenome and the possibility of a biosocial archive.

The growth in epigenetics continues to attract considerable cross-disciplinary interest, apparently representing an opportunity to move beyond genomics towards the goal of understanding phenotypic variability from molecular through organismal to the societal level. The epigenome may also harbour useful information about life-time exposures (measured or unmeasured) irrespective of their influence on health or disease, creating the potential for a person-specific . Furthermore such data may prove of use in providing identifying information, providing the possibility of a future . The mechanisms involved in ensuring that environmentally induced epigenetic changes perpetuate across the life course remain unclear. Here we propose a potential role of in maintaining epigenetic states provides a useful basis for formulating such epidemiologically-relevant concepts.