Michael Meaney
Professor Michael J. Meaney, McGill University, Canada
The genetic architecture of individual differences in susceptibility to stress reveals candidate biological mechanisms
17:30 - 18:30, Tuesday 16th April - The CCD Auditorium
Michael J. Meaney is a professor at McGill University specialising in biological psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery, who is primarily known for his research on stress, maternal care, and gene expression. His research team has "discovered the importance of maternal care in modifying the expression of genes that regulate behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to stress, as well as hippocampal synaptic development" in animal studies. The research has implications for domestic and public policy for maternal support and its role in human disease prevention and economic health.
Meaney’s earlier research was important in providing impetus for applied behavioral epigenetic research in humans as well. His first human research compared suicide subjects with a history of child abuse to suicide subjects without a history of child abuse.