Project description DEENESFRITPL The interplay of nature and nurture Is it nature or nurture? How does the early life environment interact with genetic predisposition to causally shape later life outcomes? Are there certain environments that exacerbate or reduce health inequalities in the population? These questions have been tabled by the EU-funded DONNI project. To find the answers, the project is combining advancements across disciplines. It will evaluate the long-term effects of short-term variations in early life conditions and will test the hypothesis that gene-environment interactions shape later life outcomes. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective The “Developmental Origins of Health and Disease” (DOHaD) hypothesis states that insults in early life can have lifelong, irreversible impacts, affecting individuals’ health and well-being in older age. My proposed research builds on this in two main ways. First, I will use natural experiments to investigate the causal impact of early life circumstances on later life outcomes, focusing on novel (1) nutritional, (2) toxicological, (3) health and (4) economic environments in early life. Within these, I will consider insults (i) for which there is insufficient knowledge of their long-term impacts, (ii) which are relevant today, and (iii) importantly, which are modifiable. Second, I will go beyond the old “nature versus nurture” debate and investigate how individuals’ genes (‘nature’) interacts with the above early life environments (‘nurture’) in creating inequalities in health and well-being.Whilst neither the estimation of causal effects within DOHaD, nor the estimation of the gene-environment (GxE) interplay is new, their combination is. Indeed, it is currently not known how the early life environment interacts with genetic predisposition to causally shape later life outcomes, as well as whether certain environments exacerbate or reduce health inequalities in the population. Combining advancements across disciplines, I will evaluate the long-term effects of short-term variations in early life conditions (objective 1), and I will directly test the hypothesis that gene-environment interactions causally shape later life outcomes (objective 2). I will digitize historical data on early life environmental exposures and merge these with large-scale individual-level data. As such, my proposal will investigate the extent to which genes interact with the environment, using natural experiments to identify interventions that can ameliorate inequalities in health and well-being (objective 3). Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2019-STG - ERC Starting Grant Call for proposal ERC-2019-STG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-STG - Starting Grant Coordinator UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL Net EU contribution € 1 498 767,00 Address Beacon house queens road BS8 1QU Bristol United Kingdom See on map Region South West (England) Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol/Bath area Bristol, City of Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL United Kingdom Net EU contribution € 1 498 767,00 Address Beacon house queens road BS8 1QU Bristol See on map Region South West (England) Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol/Bath area Bristol, City of Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
