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Two studies published in a recent issue of Science were concerned with possible mutations to Chernobyl survivors and their children. Researchers used advanced genomic tools to investigate potential health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation from the 1986 accident in northern Ukraine.

A study of more than 200 Chernobyl survivors and offspring found no evidence of a transgenerational effect. The team sequenced the genomes of 105 parents and 130 children born between 1987 and 2002. Numbers of de novo mutations (DNMs) were no greater than those seen in the general population—even at the highest radiation doses. A summary of the work by Richard Stone was published online.

According to a National Cancer Institute press release, a second study published in the same Science issue documented genetic changes in the tumors of people who developed thyroid cancer following being exposed as children or fetuses to the radiation released during the Chernobyl accident. Results of the study suggest that DNA double-strand breaks could be an early genetic change following radiation exposure that subsequently enables the growth of thyroid cancers. These findings suggest further studies of radiation-induced cancers, especially those that involve risk differences as a function of both dose and age.