Intergenerational legacies of stress – Causes, Consequences, Brakes.
Data collected in the context of the Holocaust, famines, and domestic abuse provide evidence that effects of trauma and stress extend beyond the generation directly exposed and contribute to the development of depression, anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in offspring that themselves were not exposed to such events. Legacies of ancestral experiences reverberate across generations! Research in the laboratory seeks to understand how parental legacies of stress derail mental health in offspring.
With this intent, the lab studies how stress influences mammalian neurobiology, physiology and reproductive biology in mice that have been exposed to stressors and follows the consequences of these influences across generations. Our analyses incorporate molecular, cellular, genetic, epigenetic and circuit-based approaches. We use techniques that include chemogenetic- and optogenetic-based manipulation of neural activity, in vivo manipulation of non-coding RNAs, intra-zygotic injection of RNA extracted from sperm of male mice that have been exposed to stress, genetic and epigenetic-based sequencing approaches.
Current projects include studying
1. the role of the sub-thalamic, zona incerta, in behavioral inhibition.
2. the role of cortical astrocytes in behavioral inhibition.
3. intergenerational influences of paternal stress using olfaction.
4. intergenerational influences of early life stress.
Data collected in the context of the Holocaust, famines, and domestic abuse provide evidence that effects of trauma and stress extend beyond the generation directly exposed and contribute to the development of depression, anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in offspring that themselves were not exposed to such events. Legacies of ancestral experiences reverberate across generations! Research in the laboratory seeks to understand how parental legacies of stress derail mental health in offspring.
With this intent, the lab studies how stress influences mammalian neurobiology, physiology and reproductive biology in mice that have been exposed to stressors and follows the consequences of these influences across generations. Our analyses incorporate molecular, cellular, genetic, epigenetic and circuit-based approaches. We use techniques that include chemogenetic- and optogenetic-based manipulation of neural activity, in vivo manipulation of non-coding RNAs, intra-zygotic injection of RNA extracted from sperm of male mice that have been exposed to stress, genetic and epigenetic-based sequencing approaches.
Current projects include studying
1. the role of the sub-thalamic, zona incerta, in behavioral inhibition.
2. the role of cortical astrocytes in behavioral inhibition.
3. intergenerational influences of paternal stress using olfaction.
4. intergenerational influences of early life stress.