The Epigenetics of Early Life Adversity and Trauma Inheritance: An Interview with Moshe Szyf

Abstract

In this interview, Professor Moshe Szyf speaks with Storm Johnson, Commissioning Editor for Epigenomics, on his work to date in the field of social epigenetics.

Szyf received his PhD from the Hebrew University and did his postdoctoral fellowship in genetics at Harvard Medical School, joined the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University in Montreal in 1989 and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Academy of Health Sciences of Canada. He is the founding codirector of the Sackler Institute for Epigenetics and Psychobiology at McGill and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Experience-Based Brain and Biological Development program. Szyf was the founder of the first pharma to develop epigenetic pharmacology, Methylgene Inc., and the journal Epigenetics. The Szyf lab proposed two decades ago that DNA methylation is a prime therapeutic target in cancer and other diseases and postulated and provided the first set of evidence that the social environment early in life can alter DNA methylation, launching the emerging field of social epigenetics.

Keywords::

• DNA methylation
• early life adversity
• environmental epigenomics
• epigenetics
• social epigenetics

Financial&competing interests disclosure

M Szyf is a member of the Epigenomics editorial board. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvementwith any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in themanuscript apart from those disclosed.No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Interview disclosure

The opinions expressed in this interview are those of M Szyf and do not necessarily reflect the views of Future Medicine Ltd.