Since the discovery of the DNA sequence, much progress has been made in our understanding of the role of genes and gene products in physiological and pathological processes. Research efforts to define mechanisms through which environmental factors modify gene structure and gene function have become more intense, with epigenetic and microbiomic responses, as well as molecular damage induced by environmental agents, now clearly implicated. With Gene Environment Interactions: Nature and Nurture in the Twenty-first Century , celebrated human geneticist and translational researcher Dr. Moyra Smith offers a rare, synergistic view of ongoing revelations in gene environment interaction studies, drawing together key themes from epigenetics, microbiomics, disease etiology, and toxicology, among other disciplines, to illuminate pathways for clinical translation and a paradigm shift towards precision medicine. Here, the age-old debate of nature vs. nature is re-examined with fresh, holistic insight, with a thorough exploration of ongoing efforts to understand mechanisms of gene environment interactions and their consequences for human health and wellbeing. Across eleven chapters, Dr. Smith discusses our interactions with the environment, human adaptations to environmental stimuli and pathogen encounters across the centuries, epigenetic modulation of gene expression and transgenerational inheritance, the microbiome's intrinsic effects on human health throughout our lifespans, and the gene-environment etiology of cardiovascular, metabolic, psychiatric, behavioral, and monogenic disorders among other disease types.

Later chapters illuminate how new understanding of gene environment interactions are driving advances in precision medicine and novel treatments. Smith also shares strategies to support clinical translation of these scientific findings and improve heath literacy among the general population, along with methods for identifying and mitigating harmful effects of environmental agents. A final chapter addresses climate change and early understanding of how this--what is perhaps the twenty-first century's greatest existential threat--is already manifesting as a gene-environment interaction for current generations, and strategies we might adopt to mitigate its effects.