Research Seminar: “Can diet and chemical exposures in early life affect adolescent health via epigenetic mechanisms?”
Presented by
Karen E. Peterson, ScD
Stanley M. Garn Collegiate Professor and Chair of Nutritional Sciences
Professor of Global Public Health
Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
University of Michigan School of Public Health
Talk Summary
Maternal diet and chemical exposures in fetal life have the potential to impact cardiometabolic risk in adulthood through epigenetic programming. Puberty also may be a sensitive period for epigenetic changes, yet few studies have examined effects of diet and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on DNA methylation of genes related to maturation and the development of adolescent obesity. This talk will present findings from a Mexico City birth cohort that relate EDCs found in foods and personal care products and lifestyle behaviors to epigenetic changes, pubertal onset and progression and the development of adiposity in adolescent boys and girls.
About the Speaker
Dr. Peterson is Associate Director of the NIH-funded Michigan Nutrition and Obesity Research Center and contact Principal Investigator for the UM Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Protection Center. Dr. Peterson’s research focuses on the role early life diet and toxicant exposures play in the development of obesity and metabolic risk across sensitive life course periods. She also founded the Momentum Center to catalyze novel, cross-disciplinary innovations to reduce child obesity and has evaluated several population-based interventions to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors and reduce chronic disease risk in low income and Latinx women and children.
Hosted by
Michael Goran, PhD
Director, Program for Diabetes and Obesity
The Saban Research Institute
The Dr. Robert C. & Veronica Atkins Chair in Childhood Obesity & Diabetes
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
Professor of Pediatrics
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Additional Information
Lunch will be provided to seminar guests; first come, first served
Help us save plastic! Bring your own water bottles. Water will be available to fill your bottles.
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RSVP is required to tecpad@chla.usc.edu