Epigenetic Pathways of Socioeconomic Disparities across the lifespan

ongoing

Children who grow up in low-income homes are at risk for worse mental and physical health for their entire lives, a phenomenon known as the “long arm of childhood”. But, understanding and intervening on this process is enormously difficult, as the effects of childhood environments can take decades to become visible in adult morbidity and mortality. What researchers need is a “wormhole”, i.e., a passage through time that connects childhood and adulthood. In the proposed research project, I will examine the utility of DNA-methylation (DNAm) as a “molecular wormhole” for investigating how socioeconomic disadvantage in childhood is linked with (mental)health across the lifespan. The proposed “Epigenetic pathways of Socioeconomic Disparities across the lifespan” (EpiSoDi) project allows me to conduct my independent research project with leading scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. Building on the Baby’s First Years Study (N=850), I will, for the first time, integrate methylation profile scores (MPS) into a randomized controlled trial testing whether unconditional cash transfers to low-income mothers for the first 4 years of the child’s life cause changes in the child’s methylome in early childhood. Additionally, I will travel forward through the wormhole, by developing MPSs that index the socioeconomic conditions of childhood, and testing their associations with mental and physical health in older adulthood (Health and Retirement Study, N= 4,018). This will generate important and novel insights in the way social inequality shape differential outcomes in (mental) health across the lifespan. Throughout my research, I have sought to bridge social and genetic science to better understand child development. The project fits this aspiration and is an indispensable step in my career as it allows me to extend my current academic pursuits, further grow into an independent researcher and help me to specialize in the exciting field of epigenetics.