Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith explains what epigenetics is and how our environment interacts with our genome and if these changes can be passed on to the next generation. What is epigenetic inheritance and why is it important? And why would it matter which parent you inherited a particular gene from? Epigeneticist Anne Ferguson-Smith outlines the implications of parental origin for development, metabolism and the brain. Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith is Head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. She is a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator and her lab focuses on the developmental role of imprinted genes and the epigenetic mechanisms controlling the specific expression of genes depending on their parental origins. Thumbnail image credit: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd, CC BY 4.0