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Approved research

The metabolic consequences of adverse early life conditions and subsequent risk for adult cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes

Principal Investigator: Dr Luke Johnston
Approved Research ID: 47673
Approval date: May 23rd 2019

Lay summary

We aim to study how early life adverse conditions, such as stress from parental divorce, chronic illness, or lower socioeconomic position, may influence adult metabolism and eventually lead to diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. While we know that early life adversity negatively affects health in later adulthood, we don't know how it may affect metabolism. Historically, this area of research has been difficult to study due to how hard it is to get valuable and suitable data, but also because analysing the data is incredibly complicated. With recent increases in computer and analysis capabilities that has been driven by advances in machine learning and big data, better tools are becoming available that can begin answering how early life conditions influence later adult metabolic capacity. Over the course of 48 months, we hope to begin learning more about the 'how' of early life adversity's role in disease and also aim to create better tools for the analyses so other researchers can further accelerate their own work. In the end, we hope that this knowledge will help with creating more effective public health strategies for disease prevention and with making more precise clinical decisions for disease management in those exposed to early life adversity.