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Active until its closure by the Nazis in 1938, the BVA conducted experiments on hundreds of animal species, publishing extensive findings that suggested acquired traits could be inherited.
By Shula Rosen
An Israeli biologist has secured $1.2 million in international funding to revisit a controversial line of research that once challenged mainstream views on inheritance.
Prof. Oded Rechavi, an Edmond J. Safra affiliate in Life Sciences, received the grant from the Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) to recreate early 20th-century experiments on epigenetic inheritance—the idea that an organism’s life experiences can influence traits passed to its offspring without altering DNA.
The HFSP program is highly competitive, awarding funding to only about 4% of applicants each year.
Rechavi’s project will use modern scientific tools to reexamine studies carried out more than a century ago at the Biologische Versuchsanstalt (BVA), a private research institute founded in Vienna by three Jewish scientists.
Active until its closure by the Nazis in 1938, the BVA conducted experiments on hundreds of animal species, publishing extensive findings that suggested acquired traits could be inherited.
For decades, the concept was dismissed as implausible. However, more recent research in worms, mice, and other organisms has revived interest in the possibility that environmental or life experiences can influence future generations.
By reconstructing the original experiments with current technology, Rechavi hopes to determine whether the BVA’s conclusions still hold.
If successful, the work could have far-reaching implications, potentially reshaping scientific understanding of evolution, medicine, and ecology.
It also blends historical investigation with cutting-edge biology, aiming to bridge an interrupted chapter in scientific history.
“This project is extraordinary both in scope and in nature,” HFSP officials said in their announcement, noting that it combines the rigor of contemporary experimental design with the ambition of early pioneers.
The research will begin later this year, with results expected to shed light on whether the past’s most provocative biological claims were ahead of their time—or mistaken.
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