Michael Meaney

Michael Meaney, PhD, C.Q., FRSC, is a professor at McGill University specializing in biological psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery, who is primarily known for his research on stress, maternal care, and gene expression. His research team has "discovered the importance of maternal care in modifying the expression of genes that regulate behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to stress, as well as hippocampal synaptic development" in animal studies.^[1] The research has implications for domestic and public policy for maternal support and its role in human disease prevention and economic health.^[2]

Meaney is Associate Director of the Research Centre at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Director of the Program for the Study of Behaviour, Genes and Environment, and James McGill Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University. He was named a "Most Highly Cited Scientist" in the area of neuroscience by the Institute for Scientific Information in 2007 and was also elected to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) and named a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. For research on stress he has received a Senior Scientist Career Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in 1997. He also, along with fellow researcher from the Douglas Institute Dr. Gustavo Turecki, was awarded the Scientist of the Year Award by Radio-Canada ^[3]

Publications

• Maternal programming of defensive responses through sustained effects on gene expression, Josie Diorio, and Michael J. Meaney, J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2007, July; 32(4): 275–284.

• Promoter-Wide Hypermethylation of the Ribosomal RNA Gene Promoter in the Suicide Brain, Patrick O. McGowan, Aya Sasaki,Tony C. T. Huang,Alexander Unterberger, Matthew Suderman,Carl Ernst, Michael J. Meaney, Gustavo Turecki, and Moshe Szyf, PLoS ONE. 2008; 3(5): PLoS ONE. 2008; 3(5): e2085.
• Maternal care effects on the hippocampal transcriptome and anxiety-mediated behaviors in the offspring that are reversible in adulthood, Ian C. G. Weaver, Michael J. Meaney, and Moshe Szyf, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 February 28; 103(9): 3480–3485.
• Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior, Ian C G Weaver, Nadia Cervoni, Frances A Champagne, Ana C D’Alessio, Shakti Sharma1, Jonathan R Seckl, Sergiy Dymov, Moshe Szyf & Michael J Meaney, Nature Neuroscience 7, 847−854 (2004). (PDF, 643 kB) doi:10.1038/nn1276

• Meaney, M.J. (2001) Maternal care, gene expression, and the transmission of individual differences in stress reactivity across generations. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24:1161-1192.

Books

Foundations in Social Neuroscience, John T. Cacioppo, Gary G. Berntson, Ralph Adolphs, C. Sue Carter, Richard J. Davidson, Martha K. McClintock, Bruce S. McEwen, Michael J. Meaney, Daniel L. Schacter, Esther M. Sternberg, Stephen S. Suomi and Shelley E. Taylor (Eds.) MIT Press, July 2002

See also

• Epigenetics
• Haptic Medicine
• Douglas Hospital

References

1. ^ Researcher Profile - Michael Meaney, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
2. ^ CIHR program in Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) Douglas Hospital Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H4H 1R3, CANADA
3. ^ Michael Meaney, Moshe Szyf and Gustavo Turecki honoured for their work in epigenetics, News article from Douglas Mental Health University Institute

External links

• Researcher Profile - Michael Meaney, Douglas Mental Health University Institute affiliated with McGill University
• www.21stcenturymed.org
• Touch Research Institute
• Michael Meaney Lab Webpage

Persondata
Name	Meaney, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death