Dr. Frances Champagne
04/17/2026 | Just Like Nana |

Dr. Frances Champagne delves into the world of epigenetics to explain how your environment and experiences shape your brain and behavior. 

Understanding these interactive pathways can lead to greater resilience and personal agency, regardless of the past. 

About Dr. Champagne

After completing a B.A. in Psychology at Queen’s University (Canada), Dr. Frances Champange delved into the genetic and environmental risk factors in psychopathology at McGill University in the M.Sc. program in Psychiatry. She then started a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at McGill University examining the role of mother-infant interactions in shaping the brain. In 2004, Dr. Champagne received a fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to conduct postdoctoral research at Cambridge University (UK), examining the role of imprinted genes in development and social behavior. From 2006-2017, She was a faculty in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University and established a research group examining the epigenetic influence of early life experiences. Her interests focus on the interplay between genes and environment that shape neural and behavioral outcomes and the implications of this dynamic interplay for inheritance of traits. 

Epigenetics 101: How Our Biology is Rewritten Over Generations 

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Frances Champagne. If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and wondered how much of you was written in stone the day you were born, this conversation is for you. 

Dr. Champagne is the Associate Dean of Research and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and she has spent her career untangling one of the most complex mysteries of the human experience: the interplay between our genes and our environment.

As we talked, I couldn’t help but think about my own family history. It’s a powerful realization that we aren’t coming into this world as blank slates. Beyond the DNA that we inherit from our family, we also receive epigenetic markers based on our ancestors’ life experiences.  But as Dr. Champagne explained, that inheritance isn’t a life sentence—it’s more like a set of instructions that we have the power to edit.

Understanding the Software of Life

One of the first things I asked Dr. Champagne to do was level set our understanding of epigenetics. It’s a word that gets used frequently, but what does it actually mean?

In the early days, researchers used the term to describe anything that wasn’t strictly genetic, like why identical twins might develop different personalities or health outcomes. Today, however, it refers to specific molecular changes around our DNA that act as an on-off switch for gene activity.

I like to use a hardware vs. software analogy:

  • The Hardware: This is your DNA sequence. It’s the set of instructions you’re born with, and it doesn’t change.
  • The Software: This is the epigenetic layer. It determines which instructions are actually run or expressed.

In Dr. Champagne’s lab, they focus on something called DNA methylation. It’s a stable chemical modification to the DNA that is also malleable. This is the sweet spot of science because it explains how the environment can shape us in ways that last a lifetime, or even across generations.

The Power of the Nana Influence

Dr. Champagne studied how mother-infant interactions in rats shaped the brain. They found that the way a mother rat cared for her pups—the literal tactile elements of care—shaped the brain systems that predicted how those pups would eventually care for their own babies.

This wasn’t just a one-generation fluke. This maternal effect persisted in the granddaughters and beyond. It turns out that what you experience as an infant shapes the systems in your brain that will eventually inform your own behavior as a parent. It’s a cycle that perpetuates itself, not necessarily through the classic inheritance of sperm and egg, but through the lived experience that becomes embodied in our biology.

Stress, Trauma, and the Double Whammy

We also delved into the heavier side of this science: trauma. Dr. Champagne provided biological context for intergenerational trauma. Severe trauma can program our stress systems and neuroplasticity.

She mentioned a fascinating study involving odor responses in mice. When a specific odor was paired with a stressful shock, the subsequent generations—who never experienced the shock themselves—still reacted to that specific odor. It’s a form of memory transmitted across generations.

In humans, this often shows up in trauma narratives—the stories families tell—which can lead to increased stress reactivity in children and grandchildren.

The Good News: We Are Wired for Resilience

If you’re reading this and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the idea of carrying your ancestors’ stress, take heart. Dr. Champagne was very clear: resilience is the normative response.

Our epigenetic systems are meant to be malleable and responsive. We are not just a product of our genes; we are the product of amazing and interactive pathways. Your story is not yet written, and your biology is not your destiny.

Resources Mentioned

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