#537 Christopher Kuzawa: Developmental Plasticity, Life History, and Epigenetics
RECORDED ON JULY 9th 2021.
Dr. Christopher Kuzawa is Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He uses principles from anthropology and evolutionary biology to gain insights into the biological and health impacts of human developmental plasticity. His primary field research is conducted in Cebu, the Philippines, where he works with a large birth cohort study that enrolled more than 3,000 pregnant women in 1983 and has since followed their offspring into adulthood (now 30 years old). He uses the nearly 3 decades of data available for each study participant, and recruitment of generation 3 (the grandoffspring of the original mothers), to gain a better understanding of the long-term and intergenerational impacts of early life environments on adult biology, life history, reproduction, and health. A theme of much of his work is the application of principles of developmental plasticity and evolutionary biology to issues of health.
In this episode, we talk about developmental plasticity and epigenetics. The topics covered include: early life environments and their health impacts; brain evolution and life history; longitudinal health studies done in the Philippines; human epigenetics; and the extended evolutionary synthesis.
Time Links:
Intro
Early life environments and developmental plasticity
Life history and brain evolution
Longitudinal studies in the Philippines
Human epigenetics
The extended evolutionary synthesis in evolutionary biology
Follow Dr. Kuzawa’s work!
Follow Dr. Kuzawa’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3mxZiIK
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/2TxRTQZ