ZURICH – Laboratory of Neuro-epigenetics, University and ETH Zurich


How Is Childhood Trauma Transmitted Across Generations?

Isabelle Mansuy and her PLEX Research Partners discuss a number of topics from grant applications to epi-genetics and trauma, visting some old cliches on the way…

ZURICH - Laboratory of Neuro-epigenetics, University and ETH Zurich

Latest Episode

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 04 Episode 06 – Living with mental illness is a full-time job…

    Isabelle listens carefully as the PLEX-RPs build a picture of mental illness that steals your existence and is all consuming... +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 1 Episode 1 – From Purgatory to Paradise

    Cutting edge research needs money - Isabelle and her PLEX Research Partners discuss the often fruitless task of finding the funds… +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 1 Episode 2 – There Really is a Biological Basis…

    On the track of trauma - and Renaud begins to feel the impact of SYNERGIES… +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 1 Episode 3 – De-mystification

    Isabelle dispels rumours of a “double life” which leads to an exchange around a haunting professional dilemma… +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 1 Episode 4 – Useful and Constructive

    Isabelle reveals the advantages participating in SYNERGIES and Cecilia evokes the problems she has with taking her medication… +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 1 Episode 5 – Some Epigenetic Markers

    The meeting begins to get “technical” as Isabelle and Renaud discuss the markers and mechanisms involved in Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance (TEI)… +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 1 Episode 6 – Another Epigenetic Mechanism

    The ZURICH team continue their discussion around DNA and microRNA methylation and touch on the reasons why it is so difficult to treat psychiatric disorders… +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 1 Episode 7 – The Limbic System

    Renaud outlines his theory of the origins of empathy - much to the amusement of the others in the room… +

Research Partners

Hasna – PLEX RP

Cecilia – PLEX RP

Renaud – PLEX RP

Isabelle – PI

In this second series of videos, Isabelle Mansuy and her PLEX Research Partners, Cecilia, Hasna and Renaud try to draw a circle around the roots and definitions of trauma… 

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 2 Episode 1 – What is trauma?

    Isabelle digs deep in an effort to explain what trauma means to her, with a little help from her PLEX Research Partners of course… +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 2 Episode 2 – Humiliation – I never thought it could be so destructive…

    What shape can trauma take? Isabelle Mansuy’s group touch upon the impact of childhood humiliation... +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 2 Episode 3 – The impact of SYNERGIES

    Isabelle Mansuy begins a discussion around how SYNERGIES has altered her world view and what this implies for the future of her research... +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 2 Episode 4 – Why me?

    Cecile attempts to address the injustice of mental illness when she asks "why me?" +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 2 Episode 5 – Does This Make You Angry?

    Cecilia and Renaud reveal how they deal with anger and how acceptance rather than forgiveness is the more likely the solution... +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 2 Episode 6 – The Physical Legacy of Trauma

    Trauma - never mind the mind, trauma leaves scars everywhere in the body... +

  • Synergies - ETH Zurich

    Meeting 02 Episode 07 – Why use mice for these experiments?

    Epigenetics or just plain old genetic variability? Tracking changes in DNA means you need to start with a level playing field and Isabelle explains why mice are the model subject... +

Research Partners

Hasna – PLEX RP

Cecilia – PLEX RP

Renaud – PLEX RP

Isabelle – PI

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 03 Episode 01 – What do we mean by “trauma”? – A second look…

    What do we mean when we talk about “trauma”? Isabelle and her PLEX-RPs take another shot at defining the phenomenon at the heart of her research - without which, a deeper understanding of the scientific and clinical ramifications are difficult +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 03 Episode 02 – How do we deal with the mental fallout of trauma?

    What happens once you realise you have suffered severe childhood trauma? Cecilia reveals a bilateral approach to being bipolar... +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 03 Episode 03 – The need to network – collaboration between professionals

    Psychiatrists vs Psychologists - Cecilia and Hasna discuss the importance of having these two professions work in close collaboration when seeking a balanced approach to treating PLEX +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 03 Episode 04 – How did they memory of trauma resurface?

    What happens when something hitherto forgotten comes back and unleashes emotional and psychological chaos? Cecilia begins to unravel the source of her issues and comes to a conclusion that couples courage with resolution... +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 03 Episode 05 – On being labelled as “sick”

    You want to know how being labelled as "mentally ill” can in and of itself destroy a life? Listen to Renaud as he so eloquently elucidates the semantic pitfalls and complex layers of guilt, stigma and hopelessness associated with coming +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 03 Episode 06 – Ideas for future collaboration…

    Now that the Zurich SYNERGIES programme has attained cruising speed, Isabelle and the PLEX-RPs start to explore the possibility of other types of collaboration with a view to future publication... +

Research Partners

Hasna – PLEX RP

Cecilia – PLEX RP

Renaud – PLEX RP

Isabelle – PI

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 04 Episode 01 – Is research funding founded on fads?

    Funding for research is a tough nut to crack, especially when you are up against projects which appeal to established parameters or have "preordained" high-profile objectives. Isabelle laments the paucity of financing available to 'lean, mean and provocative" projects that +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 04 Episode 02 – Research – A woman’s perspective…

    When asked about how a career in science is affected by gender, Isabelle Mansuy relates a number of anecdotes that illustrate the prejudices still affecting women's education... +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 04 Episode 03 – “GRAAP – (Associative and psychiatric Action Group) – an institution of interested individuals…”

    GRAAP (Associative and psychiatric Action Group) - an institution of interested individuals -Isabelle is curious about the organisation behind her PLEX Research Partners and the group obliges with a detailed expose... +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 04 Episode 04 – Laurence and the AFAAP – Fribourg based psychiatric support group

    Laurence talks about her involvement with the support group for PLEX based in Fribourg +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 04 Episode 05 – Is epigenetic change reversible?

    Laurence talks about her involvement with the support group for PLEX based in Fribourg +

  • Synergies – ETH Zurich

    Meeting 04 Episode 06 – Living with mental illness is a full-time job…

    Isabelle listens carefully as the PLEX-RPs build a picture of mental illness that steals your existence and is all consuming... +

Research Partners

Hasna – PLEX RP

Cecilia – PLEX RP

Renaud – PLEX RP

Isabelle – PI

  • COVID CONFABS

    COVID CONFABS – E01

    Isabelle Mansuy shares her own "lockdown routine" during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic... +

  • COVID CONFABS

    COVID CONFABS – E02

    Jacqueline looks back 10 years and compares the current pandemic with her mental state then +

  • COVID CONFABS

    COVID CONFABS – E03

    Isabelle explains how being in lockdown led her team to a new scientific discovery... +

  • COVID CONFABS

    COVID CONFABS – E04

    Isabelle introduces the “Early Cause” consortium while experiments carried out during lockdown find a link between cardiovascular disease and trans-generational trauma... +

  • COVID CONFABS

    COVID CONFABS – E05

    When things go wrong in childhood, it isn’t just the child who suffers. Isabelle offers some hope and scientific evidence of how this deeply disturbing reality might be avoided... +

  • COVID CONFABS

    COVID CONFABS – E06

    How does childhood trauma launch us towards psychiatric issues later in life? Laurence alludes to her own experience and fingers “hypersensitivity” as the culprit... +

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