Epigenetic Conspiracy Essay

In recent years it has become apparent that the environment and underlying mechanisms affect gene expression and the genome outside of the central dogma of biology. It has been found that many epigenetic mechanisms are involved in the regulation and expression of genes such as DNA methylation and chromatin remodeling. These epigenetic mechanisms are believed to be a contributing factor to pathological diseases such as Diabetes type II. An understanding of the epigenome of diabetes patients may help to elucidate otherwise hidden causes of this disease. Critical to the understanding of more complex mechanisms of inheritance we must first have a fundamental understanding of mitosis. Since 1996, as a newly assistant professor of biology, I started to integrate the African Diaspora into teaching the cell
I created a lecture that I call the “Mitotic Conspiracy.” I use the events of history interwoven with current events to give students a historic sense of place and an Afrocentric viewpoint of a biological phenomenon.
I call it a conspiracy because by definition, a conspiracy is a belief that an unpleasant event or situation is the result of a secret
Students are eager to follow because they have a shared interest in learning about facts that they may never read in their biology book. For example, one of my favorite topics in the mitotic conspiracy is what happens in interphase. I make the analogy that interphase is like being in a village where living is more communal. I specifically have the students to compare and contrast modern day family structure to those of traditional West African heritage. I tell them in kinship clans you cannot tell where one family begins or where the other ends. I specifically draw a connection to kinship clans and have them contrast that with the concept of the “nuclear