Molecular signatures of pregnancy health and child development: What can measures of biological age tell us?

The Women’s Health Seminar Series features multidisciplinary research on women’s health. The goal of the series is to provide multidisciplinary training for attendees, including students across a broad range of women’s health research topics. Speakers will present their research regarding the biological, psychological, behavioural, economic and social factors in women’s health and their effects on women’s health outcomes. The series is open to everyone that is interested in learning more about women’s health. 

Speaker: Dr. Kieran O’Donnell, Assistant Professor, Yale Child Study Center & Dept. Obs. Gyn. & Repro Sciences, Yale School of Medicine

Dr. O’Donnell is an Assistant Professor jointly appointed within the Yale Child Study Center and the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr O’Donnell leads the Health-Omics and Perinatal Epidemiology research group, which seeks to better understand individual differences in the fetal origins of mental health.

Talk summary:

An ever-increasing number of biomarkers of aging have been developed and used to better predict individual differences in age-related pathologies. Such DNA methylation-based measures of biological age have been proposed as ‘integrative biomarkers of system health’. Here, drawing on unique data from multiple prospective, longitudinal pregnancy cohorts, and a perinatal intervention, we ask: can measures of biological aging inform our understanding of pregnancy health and child development?