#871: Disaster Study Looks At DNA Role In Resilience

Program audio:

Dr. Dawn Kingston is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary. She is part of a team of researchers investigating disaster resilience and long term health impacts on Alberta families.In this case, the 2013 High River Flood. One aspect of her study is looking at changes in children’s DNA because of adverse reactions to the disaster.

DR. DAWN KINGSTON: And the part where we’re getting the genetic information and the stress hormone is coming from the children providing saliva samples.  So we’re getting the children to spit for us.  So once we get the samples, they come into a lab in Calgary.  And then we extract the DNA from them and the RNA.  We’ve got another separate kit  that will be analyzed for stress hormones and stress chemicals.  So is there a relationship between early adversity and what we’re seeing in certain children’s DNA who have been exposed to adversity and those haven’t.

Dr Dawn Kingston hopes the study will highlight potential markers for children at risk, and help mitigate problems thatarise at school, for example.

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