Genes and illness

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/health/study-pinpoints-what-activates-disease-causing-genes.html?_r=0

The article written by Gina Kolata from the NY Times explains new research that was done at John Hopkins Univerisity of Medicine and the Karolinska Institue in Sweden. They were looking at the mystery of how certain genes effect an illness on a persons body. It was a study of the epigenetics that looks for modifications of genes that can help determine disease risk. The study took patients with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy people who served as the control. The goal was to look at the white blood cells and their DNA for chemical tags that can attach themselves to genes and turn them on or off

This article also shows the study of epigenetics http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/epigenetics.html