Neuroendocrinology, Epigenetics, Trauma Research
Rachel Yehuda
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York · 1959–
Key work
Biological Psychiatry (epigenetics of trauma) (2016)
What they contributed
Yehuda's research established empirical evidence for the epigenetic transmission of trauma — specifically, that traumatic experience produces heritable changes in gene expression (particularly in the FKBP5 gene, which regulates the stress hormone system) that can be detected in the children and grandchildren of trauma survivors. Her research on Holocaust survivors and their descendants, and on refugees and war veterans, provided the first rigorous biological evidence that trauma crosses generations through biological mechanisms beyond behavior and narrative.
Why it matters here
Yehuda's epigenetics research is the scientific foundation for every article on generational trauma — providing biological evidence that the patterns carried from previous generations are not metaphorical but physiological. Her work answers the question of how we can carry wounds from events that happened before we were born.
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