Research

bis_measure_boy2-2I direct a 30-year longitudinal study of the Dogon of Mali, West Africa. My laboratory focuses on the intergenerational transmission of stunting through the genetic imprinting of placental genes. We are interested in how imprinting leads to a pattern of low birth weight and catch-up growth that sets the stage for social and health disparities in adult life. A large cohort of children whom we have followed since infancy are reaching adulthood and starting to give birth themselves; thus we are able to study the effect of the parent’s growth trajectory on the health of offspring. We are also studying the early childhood predictors of age at puberty in males and females, and the developmental origins of hypertension. My laboratory has a long-standing interest in menstrual cycling, with a current focus on the effect of oral contraceptives on total hormone exposure. We use evolutionary theory to study cultural phenomena, such as religion as a means to assure paternity. My laboratory combines longitudinal ethnographic field data with molecular data from genetics, epigenetics, and endocrinology.