Which genes are active in a cell can be changed by making chemical alterations (known as epigenetic markers) to their DNA.

细胞中哪些基因是活跃的，这是能够过修改DNA的化学成分（表观遗传学标志物）改变的。

Fruit flies were picked by Thomas Morgan, an early geneticist, because they are easy to breed in large numbers-and it helped that some of their cells have giant chromosomes which showed up well under the microscopes of the day.

果蝇是由早期的遗传学家托马斯·摩根挑选的，因为们很容易大量繁殖，们的一些细胞有巨大的染色体，在显微镜下很容易看到。

A new frontier in genetics is CRISPR, a gene-editing tool that works like molecular scissors, enabling scientists to cut and paste fragments of DNA within cells.

CRISPR 是遗传学的一个新领域，是一种基因编辑工具，工作原理就像分子剪刀，使科学家能够在细胞内剪切和粘贴 DNA 片段。

And the exciting thing about epigenetics is even though every cell in your body has essentially the same DNA, your epigenetics is what gives cells their identity, it's what makes a skin cell different from a brain cell.

表观遗传学令人兴奋的地方是，即使你体内的个细胞都具有基本相同的 DNA，但你的表观遗传学是赋予细胞身份的东西，正是导致了皮肤细胞与脑细胞不同。

Robin Lovell-Badge is the head of stem cell biology and developmental genetics at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

罗宾·洛弗尔-贝吉是伦敦弗朗西斯·克里克所干细胞生物学和发育遗传学的负责人。

Epigenetics studies typically use blood samples, but epigenetics varies by cell type, so if you're interested in effects in the brain, it's not clear that you would learn anything from changes in blood.

表观遗传学常使用血液样本， 但表观遗传学因细胞类型异，因此如果您对大脑的影响感兴趣， 则不清楚您能否从血液变化中学到任何东西。

We also know that they’re inherited, but for a long time, geneticists thought that sperm cells were too small to contain both the genome AND the epigenetic information of the donor.

我们也知道们是遗传的， 但很长一段时间以来，遗传学家认为精子细胞太小无法包含供体的基因组和表观遗传信息。

These cultured cells have given us critical insights about cancer genetics and biology, but they lack much of the complexity of a tumor in an actual living organism.

这些培养的细胞为我们深入了解癌症的遗传学和生物学提供了关键信息，但们在复杂性方面远不及活体生物中的肿瘤。

A lab compared the biology and genetics of this diverse set of algae and learned that as cells banded together, existing genes took on new functions.

一个实验室比较了这组多样藻类的生物学和遗传学，发现当细胞聚集在一起时，现有的基因承担了新的功能。

For example, I want to talk to you guys about DNA and genetics in cells, in bacteria, in life and a whole bunch of interesting stuff.

例如，我想和你们谈谈细胞、细菌、生命中的 DNA 和遗传学以及一大堆有趣的东西。

Huge advances in the fields of cell biology, genetics and immunology have changed the landscape of medicine since the 1970s.

自20世纪70年代以来，细胞生物学、遗传学和免疫学领域取得的巨大进展，已彻底改变了医学的面貌。

And, you know, I study, I'm a geneticist by training, I study mostly genes and cells.

你知道，我的领域是遗传学，我受过遗传学训练，主要基因和细胞。

But just in the last few years it has become almost unbelievably complex, filled with strange parts whose functions are beyond today's imagining.

就在三十年前，当 DNA 分子奇妙的几何结构展现在公众面前，遗传学的线性语言被解码时，我们称之为生物革命。一时间，一切都显得简单明了，细胞就像一台整洁的小机器，一个随时可以拆卸和重新组装的机械装置，就像一块小小的手表。但就在最近几年，细胞变得复杂得几乎令人难以置信，其中充满了奇怪的部件，其功能超出了今天的想象。

There are still major obstacles to overcome before optogenetic treatment can be used more widely, including identifying the relevant brain cells to be modified, and finding ways to safely introduce light sources into the brain.

在光遗传学治疗得到更广泛应用之前， 仍有重大障碍需要克服，包括识别要修饰的相关脑细胞， 以及找到将光源安全引入大脑的方法。

The team made their discovery with a technique called optogenetics, which uses genetic engineering to introduce light-sensitive proteins into select brain cells.

团队使用一种称为光遗传学的技术做出了这一发现，该技术过基因工程将光敏蛋白引入选定的脑细胞。