Welcome to Episode 29 of The Genomics Lab! On today's episode we talk to Alexandria Andrayas who is a PhD candidate in the Soc-B Centre for doctoral training which is a new and unique programme in biosocial research. The programme is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council. It combines the strengths of the University of Essex, Manchester and UCL. The impact of smoking on health can be mediated through several biological pathways and it is well documented that smoking can be linked to large differences in DNA methylation as Alex discusses today. We also discuss the need and importance of giving consideration to the role that society may play in studies such as these. Stay tuned to find out more about epigenetics, DNA methylation and biosocial research. Contact alex here: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/people/aandra My preprint: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.02.458717v1