Dr Michael Meaney

Dr Meaney is a leading researcher and laboratory director at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, an Adjunct Senior Investigator at the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, a James McGill Professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Neurology & Neurosurgery at McGill University, and the Director of the Program for the Study of Behaviour, Genes & Environment at McGill University.

Area of Research

Dr Meaney’s laboratory focuses on epigenetics, the biological basis by which environmental factors produce an enduring effect on genomic structures and function, and the resulting phenotype variations, including mental illnesses and learning disabilities. These studies focus on epigenetic modifications to the genome that regulate gene activity, altering or switching them ‘on and off’. This work involves both basic science and translational research models, ranging from studies of molecular mechanisms to brain-development and -function in humans.  Dr Meaney is also the director of the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability & Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) project, a Montreal-based longitudinal study of paediatric epigenetics, and a primary investigator in Singapore’s largest birth cohort study, Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO).