TREES – Transgenerational Epigenetic Effects of War Stress

TREES is a joint research project by historians and epigenetics researchers at Tampere University to study transgenerational effects of war stress. By collecting data from the Finnish soldiers' wartime service records at the Finnish National Archives, historians are designing variables to measure different levels and qualities of war stress exposure in 1939–45. This data is combined with the population-based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (LASERI), which includes extensive health and social data on three post-war generations of Finns. The aim of the project is to study whether the fathers' war-related stress has had epigenetic effects on their offspring and how these effects have possibly manifested.

TREES is a collaborative effort of an epigenetics research project led by Dr Emma Raitoharju and funded by the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, and a Research Council of Finland research project "Unequal War: Vulnerability, Stress and Survival in the Finnish Army, 1939–45", led by Dr Ville Kivimäki at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University.