Funding from RCN

Gunn-Helen Moen has received funding for the project “Developing and Applying New Statistical Models to Test for Transgenerational Effects of Environmental Exposures in Pregnancy” from the Research Council of Norway within the category “Researcher project for scientific renewal”.

In this project Gunn-Helen Moen and colleagues will investigate whether environmental factors that mothers are exposed to during pregnancy can be inherited across generations:

Women from poorer backgrounds are more likely to have infants who are born preterm (prematurely) and have low birth weight. Previous research shows this might be because of poorer diets and women from poorer backgrounds being more likely to smoke or drink alcohol during pregnancy. More controversially, researchers have also shown links between these adverse environmental exposures during pregnancy and the long-term health of future generations (i.e. the children’s children). However, since these correlations cannot be investigated by randomized controlled trials (as it would be both unethical to subject pregnant women and their children to harmful exposures and expensive and time consuming to follow the individuals across at least one generation), it is unclear whether these transgenerational associations represent causal relationships. Indeed, without a method to investigate transgenerational effects robustly, the scientific community cannot prove whether they exist, and if so, the true extent of their biological, medical and economic importance.

We will develop and apply three novel statistical methods to test for the existence of transgenerational inheritance of environmental exposures in human populations, as an alternative to conducting Randomized Controlled Trials. The project will provide strong evidence for or against the existence of transgenerational effects in humans. We will deliver new knowledge regarding transgenerational biological mechanisms, as well as adaptation to unfavourable environmental exposures and the subsequent health of future generations.