NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Washington State University will use $1.7 million from the US Department of Defense to find out if toxic chemicals US soldiers are potentially exposed to in Iraq could cause genetic damage that could then be passed along to their offspring, WSU scientist Michael Skinner said this week.
Skinner said the research will study rats, not humans, to find out if certain toxins could cause multi-generational genetic damage, through a grant program called “Epigenetic Origin of Disease and the Impact of Environmental Toxicants on the Iraq Theater of Operations.”
Skinner told GenomeWeb Daily News in an e-mail that the program has been approved for four years, but the $1.7 million DOD has provided so far covers the first two years of the program.
The DOD is funding the program through the US Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center.