The McGill Group for Suicide Studies (MGSS) has garnered significant attention for its epigenetic models of suicide risk. These models suggest that early life adversity may set people on pathways of neurobiological vulnerability and, ultimately, suicide risk, which are correlated with distinctive epigenetic traits. While the core of this epigenetic and neuroscientific research is carried out on the donated brains …
Tag Archives: Epigenetics
Ayurveda, Preconception, Biological Plasticity, and the Re-conception of a Nation
Sitting in my home office in Melbourne, I attended the first ever online international conference on Ayurveda and Epigenetics. My PhD project, which began a few months ago, addresses the circulation of epigenetic and postgenomic models of life in India. An international conference on the factors ‘that bring about epigenetic changes and the tools available through Ayurveda to restore …
Human Placenta, Birth Cohorts, and the Production of Epigenetic Knowledge
Precious Material
Over the past decade, the Canadian university-based Epigenetics Lab has become increasingly central to the production of knowledge about human health and development.[1] During my first visit there, Daniel, one of three technicians in the lab, is visibly stressed. He apologizes for not being more relaxed. He has been up all night worried about a shipment of …
Susan Squier’s Epigenetic Landscapes: Drawing as Metaphor
Epigenetic Landscapes: Drawing as Metaphor
Duke University Press, 2017. 280 pages
Susan Merrill Squier’s Epigenetic Landscapes: Drawing as Metaphor is positioned at the intersection of biological systems and art. Squier is a professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality studies whose research examines how culture, art and comics influence medicine. The book consists of an extensive biography …
After and Beyond the Genome: Taking Postgenomics Seriously
The Postgenomic Condition: Ethics, Justice, and Knowledge after the Genome
University of Chicago Press, 2017, 304 pages.
Genetics: A Situated View
How enduring is the love affair between our societies and genetics (today genomics)? And what is the role of critical social science in undermining or, rather, mirroring the power of this romance? And what do we …
Think(er)ing with Epigenetics
Epigenetics is a much-debated field of research in the contemporary biomedical sciences. Focusing on the processes of chemical regulation surrounding (hence: epi-) genetic material, epigenetic studies use a different entry point than DNA structure to understand difference and variance in species. In studying the relationship between genes, bodies, and the environment, the science of epigenetics is considered to be radically …