“How does childhood abuse rewire young brains—and put victims at increased risk for depression and suicide?” reads an ad trumpeting a prestigious prize for McGill University Professor Michael Meaney.
Meaney has won Switzerland’s 2014 Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize Laureate for his work on how parental behaviour affects brain development and lifelong function. His lab was the first to show how mistreatment changes a child’s DNA and that those changes can persist for a lifetime.
This research can help understand how childhood experiences change how genes are expressed, enabling professionals to identify those most at risk and to offer early interventions and therapies.
The prize is worth one million Swiss francs and will be bestowed on Meaney at a ceremony on December 5th at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
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