‘Gezond leven werkt tot in de kern van je cellen door’

How do you explain to someone in simple language what epigenetics is? By making a comparison with hairballs, says Bas Heijmans, professor of Population Epigenetics: ‘The DNA is the same in all cells, yet cells can do completely different things. For example, one cell is responsible for hair growth and the other for your kidneys. We call this adjustment of cells epigenetics. It gives instructions to the DNA what to do and determines which genes are active and which are not. For example, epigenetics determines that the genes that cause hair growth are ‘on’ in the cells on your head, but that they are off elsewhere on your body. So epigenetics ensures that we are not walking hairballs.’