page_title: Nessa Carey
section_title: The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance
hierarchical_section_title: Nessa Carey / Publications / The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance
caption_attribution_description: Cropped screenshot of Audrey Hepburn from the trailer for the film Roman Holiday.
context_page_description: Nessa Carey is a British biologist working in the field of molecular biology and biotechnology. She is International Director of the technology transfer organisation PraxisUnico and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London.
  With expertise in the field of epigenetics and in technology transfer, she promotes the movement of scientists between academia and industry, lecturing often to school students and early career scientists. Carey writes books and articles for a scientifically interested general audience. She is the author of The Epigenetics Revolution and Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome which explore advances in the field of epigenetics and their implications for medicine. She edited Epigenetics for Drug Discovery for the Royal Society of Chemistry's Drug Discovery Series.
context_section_description: Her first book, The Epigenetics Revolution, describes how epigenetic modifications allow the same DNA to express different characteristics; she likens DNA to a script for a play rather than a template. The same script can produce different productions of the play.
  She used the example of Audrey Hepburn's slight figure to explain the possible impacts of epigenetics. Hepburn's figure was a result of lifelong illnesses brought on by her deprivation during the Dutch famine of 1944–45 during World War II. Carey's book says we aren't simply born with pre-set genes and the way genes function can be altered 'epigenetically' by our environments or diets. These changes can subsequently impact future generations. The book discusses controversies which are a part of this rapidly developing field and explores explanations other than epigenetics for some findings.
  Peter Forbes of The Guardian wrote that while the book does not simplify scientific terminology for the general reader, it "is the first to set out the epigenetics stall for the general reader, and anyone seriously interested in who we are and how we function should read this book". Other reviewers also found the book "a bit jargon heavy",  while some felt this was "not so much her fault as the nature of biology". Alexander Badyaev writes that "you cannot help but admire the author who is so fluent in such a great diversity of topics".
caption: Carey suggests that Audrey Hepburn's slight figure may be the product of epigenetic changes from wartime deprivation.
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