ckuzawa

Personal

Bio

 RESEARCH INTERESTS: Fetal origins of developmental plasticity and adult disease, Evolutionary theory and human life history, Growth and development, and Cardiovascular disease in developing nations.

As a biological anthropologist with training in epidemiology, Kuzawa’s research focuses on the role that the intrauterine and early postnatal environments have on development, adult health, and life history. The premise of this research is that what a mother eats during pregnancy, her access to adequate prenatal care, or her stress level, may permanently alter offspring biology in a fashion that influences risk for the most common causes of adult morbidity and mortality, including hypertension, diabetes, and heart attacks. This is a novel example of what is known as “developmental plasticity,” or the sensitivity of the developing body to the environment experienced during early stages of development.  Kuzawa’s research on this topic is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and The Wenner Gren Foundation.  He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Liggins Institute, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and is currently an elected official of the governing councils of theInternational Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, theAmerican Anthropological Association (Biological Section), and the Human Biology Association.

URL

http://www.anthropology.northwestern.edu/faculty/kuzawa.html

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