Using Systems Biology Based Approaches for Considerations Across the Life Course: Views from Public Health and Preventative Medicine featuring Elaine Faustman, PhD
By Elaine M. Faustman
This talk will focus on how public health and preventive medical scientists, as well as developmental and reproductive toxicologists, interpret and apply life course health developmental principles, with an emphasis on the first four principles of the Life Course Health Development (LCHD) framework (Health Development, Unfolding, Complexity, and Timing). The focus of this talk will be on early development and childhood, and the following learning objectives will be addressed: 1. Identifying how systems biology concepts inform public health decisions for improving health development 2. Defining the life course “exposome” taking lessons from a child cohort study 3. Discussing approaches for improving our understanding of within and between human variability across development using …
Read full articleSocial disadvantage, genetic sensitivity, and children’s telomere length
By Colter Mitchella, John Hobcraftb, Sara S. McLanahanc, Susan Rutherford Siegeld, Arthur Bergd, Jeanne Brooks-Gunne, Irwin Garfinkelf, and Daniel Nottermand
Disadvantaged social environments are associated with adverse health outcomes. This has been attributed, in part, to chronic stress. Telomere length (TL) has been used as a biomarker of chronic stress: TL is shorter in adults in a variety of contexts, including disadvantaged social standing and depression. We use data from 40, 9-y-old boys participating in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to extend this observation to African American children. We report that exposure to disadvantaged environments is associated with reduced TL by age 9 y. We document significant associations between low income, low maternal education, unstable family structure, and harsh parenting and TL. These effects were moderated by genetic …
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