معرفی
Bianca Jones Marlin is the Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Cell Research at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute, with dual appointments as Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. She leads The Marlin Lab as a Principal Investigator, where she conducts research at the intersection of neurobiology and social experience.
Dr. Marlin's research focuses on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, specifically investigating how parental experiences—particularly traumatic ones—are biologically transmitted to offspring. Her work demonstrates that environmental challenges faced by parents can prepare future generations for similar challenges through epigenetic mechanisms. This research has significant implications for understanding how societal stressors like poverty and structural racism may have multi-generational biological impacts.
Her laboratory employs rodent models to study how sensory systems and emotional brain circuits are altered by parenthood and learned experiences. A key finding showed that when male mice associate an odor with stress, both they and their offspring become more sensitive to that odor, suggesting a biological pathway for intergenerational transmission of environmental information.
- The Pew Trust Biomedical Scholar (2025)
- HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar (2023)
- STAT Wunderkinds (2017)
- Simons Foundation Society of Fellows Junior Fellow (2017)
- The Grass Foundation Donald B. Lindsley Prize (2016)
- NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Dissertation Award (2016)
Dr. Marlin's publication record shows consistent productivity with work appearing in high-impact journals including Nature, where she published research on how oxytocin shapes the brain to enable maternal behavior. Her recent work spans neuroscience, epigenetics, and science policy, with increasing attention to diversity and inclusion in STEMM fields. Her lab operates on principles of conducting science that is 'radical and rigorous, ambitious and meticulous' with questions that 'point to the service of humanity' and inquiries 'elevated by personal perspectives.'
