RESEARCH_FILE
Rachel Yehuda
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Known for:Pioneering research on PTSD neurobiology and epigenetic intergenerational trauma transmission in Holocaust survivor families
Key findings
- 1998
Adult offspring of Holocaust survivors had a significantly elevated lifetime PTSD rate compared to demographically similar controls without Holocaust exposure — the first controlled demonstration that psychological vulnerability transmits across generations without direct trauma exposure. Vulnerability to posttraumatic stress disorder in adult offspring of Holocaust survivors ↗
- 2016
Holocaust survivors showed 10% higher methylation at FKBP5 intron 7 than controls; their adult offspring showed 7.7% lower methylation than control offspring at the same site — coordinated but opposite epigenetic changes providing the first human evidence of biological intergenerational trauma transmission. Holocaust Exposure Induced Intergenerational Effects on FKBP5 Methylation ↗
- 2018
Two broad categories of epigenetically mediated intergenerational transmission were identified: developmentally programmed effects from early parental environment (including in-utero stress exposure) and preconception epigenetic changes that may affect the germline — clarifying the biological pathways by which parental trauma shapes offspring stress responses. Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: putative role of epigenetic mechanisms ↗