The Role of Genetic and Environmental Factors across the Lifecourse: Improving the Rigor of Causal Inference

September 16, 2011

9 a.m.–5 p.m.
National Opinion Research Center (NORC) Room 232
University of Chicago
1155 East 60th Street

This workshop brought together researchers at the frontier of their fields to begin to address and integrate interdisciplinary approaches to advance knowledge on the developmental origins of health and aging, and to set priorities for future research agendas.

The workshop explored potential synergies with and insights from the biological and the medical sciences, together with recent advances in genetic analysis and rigorous statistical modeling, to advance our understanding of important issues in the field. Key areas for research include:

• the mechanisms through which genetic endowments and early life conditions affect the evolution of health across the lifecourse;
• the importance of selection effects in estimating the causal role of social and biological factors relevant to health and ageing;
• the nature of the selection effects, their evolution across the lifecourse, and the mechanisms through which they operate.

Meeting Agenda

9 a.m. Introduction and statement of Objectives — James J. Heckman

Session 1 – Lifecourse Consequences of Early Life Events

Questions addressed:

• What is the evidence from animal and human studies on the lifecourse consequences of early life events? How robust is the evidence?
• Are there critical and/or sensitive periods in the development of cognition, mental traits and physical health? How reversible are the effects of compromised development?

Mark Hanson
  Keith Godfrey
  H. Lumey, “Life course consequences of early life events?”
  Discussion

Session 2 – Interpersonal Dynamics and Its Long-Term Consequences

Questions addressed:

• What are the causes and long-term consequences of suboptimal social development?
• How does an impaired social development get under the skin in animals and humans?

Dario Maestripieri, "Mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of infant abuse in nonhuman primates”
Kate Pickett, Interpersonal Dynamics and Its Long-Term Consequences
Discussion

Session 3 – Biological Correlates and Pathways

Questions addressed:

• What are the mechanisms (both biological and socioeconomic) through which genetic factors operate, and translate into outcomes?
• How do we identify the short- and long-term effects of single exposures from their cumulative effects over the life cycle and the mechanisms through which they operate, from the cells to the society?

George Davey Smith
Steve Cole, "Social Regulation of Gene Expression" 
Allen Rodrigo, "The Coalescent: Genealogies and their Properties"
. Discussion

Session 4 – Psycho-Socio-Biological Linkages across the Lifespan

Questions addressed:

• What is the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to health and ageing?
• Do people make their own environments? Do they react to them? How robust is the evidence across research strategies?

Jenae Neiderhiser, "How Genes Shape Environments" 
Peter Molenaar, "Heterogeneity and Subject-Specific Heritabilities"
Discussion

Session 5 – Human Molecular Genetics

Questions addressed:

• How does molecular genetics contribute to understanding health and ageing? What are the most promising measures?
• What are the determinants and consequences of epigenetic variation? What are the most promising approaches to integrate them into models of behavior?

Richard Ebstein, "Stress and Health: The Epigenetics of Human Social Stress Response 
Caroline Relton, "Epigenetic Variation: A Promising Biomarker in Health and Disease?"  
Andrey Rzhetsky, "Nature, nurture and complex phenotypes" 
Discussion

Closing Remarks and next steps—Jim Heckman