Frances Champagne Associate Professorof Psychology, Columbia University Frances A. Champagne Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. Dr. Champagne’s main research interest concerns how genetic and environmental factors interact to shape the brain and behavior through epigenetic changes in gene expression. Studies in rodents suggest that the quality of maternal care received in infancy can lead to long-term changes in offspring gene expression and behavior. Dr. Champagne’s current and ongoing research explores the implications of these influences for the transmission of behavior across generations and the molecular mechanisms through which these effects are achieved. Dr. Champagne uses rodent models to study epigenetics, neurobiology, and behavior and also collaborates with clinical researchers who would like to apply the study of epigenetics to better understand origins of variation in human behavior. In addition to investigating the modulating effects of mother-infant interactions, Dr. Champagne is currently exploring a broad array of social influences and environmental exposures and is exploring the mechanisms of risk vs. resilience to such early life experiences. Dr. Champagne received an MSc in Psychiatry (1999) and PhD in Neuroscience (2004) from McGill University. In 2007 she received an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and her research is funded by NIMH and NIEHS. Dr. Champagne is a faculty member of the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Columbia Population Research Center (CPRC), and the Columbia Center for Research on Ethical, Legal & Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic & Behavioral Genetics. Participant In: Science and the Big Questions: Roundtable Series on the Physical and Spiritual World, the Brain-Mind Connection, and Human Development and Genetics Through 2015 Past Event The Helix Center is pleased to announce receipt of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation in support of a series of fourteen roundtables addressing big questions in the physical, natural, and biological sciences and the humanities. The topics are: Knowledge and Limitations; The Span of Infinity; Complexity and Emergence; The Search for Immortality; The Sublime Experience; The Meditative State; The… read more » Epigenetics at Work Saturday, September 12, 2015 2:30-4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » Jean-Baptiste Lamarck might today say, echoing the words of Mark Twain, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Lamarck’s theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, once derided as “soft inheritance,” has been revived through the field of epigenetics: the study of alterations in gene expression or phenotype caused by mechanisms other than primary… read more »
Science and the Big Questions: Roundtable Series on the Physical and Spiritual World, the Brain-Mind Connection, and Human Development and Genetics Through 2015 Past Event The Helix Center is pleased to announce receipt of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation in support of a series of fourteen roundtables addressing big questions in the physical, natural, and biological sciences and the humanities. The topics are: Knowledge and Limitations; The Span of Infinity; Complexity and Emergence; The Search for Immortality; The Sublime Experience; The Meditative State; The… read more »
Epigenetics at Work Saturday, September 12, 2015 2:30-4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » Jean-Baptiste Lamarck might today say, echoing the words of Mark Twain, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Lamarck’s theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, once derided as “soft inheritance,” has been revived through the field of epigenetics: the study of alterations in gene expression or phenotype caused by mechanisms other than primary… read more »