Violence alters human genes for generations, researchers discover

Mulligan worked with Rana Dajani, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at Hashemite University in Jordan, and anthropologist Catherine Panter-Brick, Ph.D., of Yale University, to conduct the unique study. The research relied on following three generations of Syrian immigrants to the country. Some families had lived through the Hama attack before fleeing to Jordan. Other families avoided Hama, but lived through the recent civil war against the Assad regime. The team collected samples from grandmothers and mothers who were pregnant during the two conflicts, as well as from their children. This study design meant there were grandmothers, mothers and children who had each experienced violence at different stages of development. A third group of families had immigrated to Jordan before 1980, avoiding the decades of violence in Syria. These early immigrants served as a crucial control to compare to the families who had experienced the stress of civil war. Herself the daughter of refugees, Dajani ... Read full article.