Dr. Elisabeth Blackburn, Nobel laureate in medicine in 2009, discovered the molecular structure of telomeres and co-discovered the enzyme telomerase, essential elements of cellular division and DNA replication. A telomere is a region at the end of a chromosome which protects the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres play a central role in cell fate and aging by adjusting the cellular response to stress. The longer a person’s telomeres, the better the health and aging prospect of the person.
With time, this line of research has come to ask social questions and has identified links between socio-cultural factors and telomere length. These questions resulted from Blackburn’s unintended findings showing that people of the same chronological age had different telomere length. What experiences and life circumstances could explain or affect that difference? Further multidisciplinary research made clear that life experiences that produce stress can be drives for shortening the length of telomeres: “The more chronic stress one suffered, the shorter one’s telomeres. Stress can prematurely age one’s cells”. This puts the person under stress at higher risk of suffering from serious diseases.
The research team led by Dr. Blackburn is now addressing questions such as how does growing up in a war zone, with domestic abuse, with racism or in poverty affect a person’s telomeres. And some data is being yielded in the lab that reiterates the finding: those adverse experiences are sources of stress that can lead to shortened telomeres. On a positive note, this research is also analyzing ways in which some telomeres can be rebuilt.
Despite this line of research is still at its beginning, it has important implications in the field of violence against women and abuse. Such violent experiences constitute adverse experiences in child and adult development, producing stress that we now know can affect even the length of telomeres, accelerating the biological aging of the person with related potential serious health risks. Protocols, policies, and trainings addressed to support the healing and resilience of victims and survivors of gender violence and other types of abuses need to also take this novel line of research into account. The elimination of violence against women and girls is not only a social problem but a public health one.
References
- Blackburn, E., & Epel, E. (2018). The telomere effect : a revolutionary approach to living younger, healthier, longer. London: Orion Spring.
- Geronimus, A. T., Pearson, J. A., Linnenbringer, E., Schulz, A. J., Reyes, A. G., Epel, E. S., Lin, J., & Blackburn, E. H. (2015). Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-based Sample. Journal of health and social behavior, 56(2), 199–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146515582100
- Sullivan, S., Hammadah, M., Al Mheid, I., Shah, A., Sun, Y. V., Kutner, M., Ward, L., Blackburn, E., Zhao, J., Lin, J., Bremner, J. D., Quyyumi, A. A., Vaccarino, V., & Lewis, T. T. (2019). An investigation of racial/ethnic and sex differences in the association between experiences of everyday discrimination and leukocyte telomere length among patients with coronary artery disease. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 106, 122–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.03.021
(Photo by lookstudio from freepik)
She holds a double PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 4th ranked scientist in safeguarding internationally (Google scholar). Her 20-year scientific career has been dedicated to study the social causes of sexual abuse and successful actions in safeguarding, that is, actions that demonstrate to prevent abuse and contribute to its elimination in all contexts. As member of CREA-UB, she has trained professionals and communities from around the world who have implemented the successful actions and have evidenced to transform lives. She is now the assistant project coordinator for PCCP in the Global Society of Jesus.