Ali Jawaid
Title
Towards the biological plausibility and biomarkers of intergenerational trauma in humans
Abstract
Childhood trauma is a major risk factor for adult psychiatric and physical disorders, with recent research indicating these effects may extend across generations. We investigate the molecular basis of the long-term effects and intergenerational transmission of trauma. We examine small non-coding RNAs in serum, sperm, and milk from diverse trauma-exposed cohorts, including Pakistani children and men with histories of complex childhood trauma, Polish mothers with exposure to adverse childhood experiences, and Bosnian adults who were exposed to the genocide during their childhood.
Using a parallel mouse model of post-natal trauma involving unpredictable maternal separation and stress, our findings suggest that lipid related circulating microRNAs play a critical role in trauma transmission across generations, highlighting their potential as biomarkers and providing insights into therapeutic strategies.
Biography
Ali Jawaid, PhD is a physician-scientist with training in both clinical and basic neuroscience. He is a Principal Research Investigator at the Research Network Łukasiewicz – PORT Polish Center for Technology Development.
He completed his medical studies from Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan, and followed it up with fellowship in Neuropsychiatry from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. He then proceeded to complete an MD-PhD in Neuroscience from Switzerland (simultaneous PhD degrees awarded by UZH/ETH International Program in Neuroscience and UZH MD-PhD program in 2016). Dr. Ali Jawaid currently heads the Laboratory for Translational Research in Exposures and Neuropsychiatric Disorders (TREND Lab) at the Nencki Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
Dr. Jawaid has worked extensively in the fields of childhood trauma, memory, neurodegenerative disorders, neuroepigenetics, and epigenetic inheritance.
He has authored 75+ publications, in notable scientific journals, such as Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Human Behavior, Neuron, Nature Communications, Trends in Genetics, EMBO Journal, and Molecular Neurodegeneration and has a current H‑index of 28.
He chaired the European MD-PhD association between 2016 and 2018 and is currently a scholar of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence. He is a fiction author, poet, and virtual-reality enthusiast outside of scientific work.