Socioeconomic status (SES) is the single most powerful predictor of health and disease within human populations. From tribal groups to advanced, industrial democracies, within both adult and childhood populations, from ancient, historical cultures to contemporary societies, social position has borne strong, graded associations with both acute and chronic, both mental and physical human morbidities. Beginning in 2004, a nascent, interdisciplinary group of investigators from the University of California, Berkeley began a program of research addressing the neurodevelopmental origins of the SES-health association, under the sponsorship of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and an R21 award entitled Social Disparities in the Early Neurobiology of Stress. Having fostered to date the inception of fifteen productive pilot projects on this theme, the Berkeley Consortium on Population Health and Human Development-in collaboration with a similarly interdisciplinary group of developmental colleagues at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver-now presents a more focused, in-depth R24 application, comprising human, animal and bioethical studies of how childhood environments work together with epigenetically based vulnerabilities to generate socially partitioned developmental and health outcomes. Using a broad range of data-from assessments of epigenetic modifications and DNA methylation to population-level measures of social class and neurodevelopmental status at school entry-we describe a research agenda on Social Disparities in Epigenetic Regulation of Neurodevelopment that is capable of formative, singular contributions to the field of mind-body health. Notable strengths of the new application are: a) its use of multiple methods, models and disciplinary perspectives to examine core epigenomic and neurodevelopmental questions, b) its focus on health disparities-arguably the most elemental issue in population health science, and c) its setting within two North American universities, in nations with broadly differing societal approaches to the social stratification of health, development and illness.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Resource-Related Research Projects (R24)
Project #
5R24MH081797-03
Application #
7690794
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-RPHB-A (50))
Program Officer
Zehr, Julia L
Project Start
2007-09-27
Project End
2011-07-31
Budget Start
2010-08-01
Budget End
2011-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$969,799
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Berkeley
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
124726725
City
Berkeley
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94704
Boyce, W Thomas (2017) Epigenomic Susceptibility to the Social World: Plausible Paths to a ""Newest Morbidity"". Acad Pediatr 17:600-606
Sakhai, Samuel A; Saxton, Katherine; Francis, Darlene D (2016) The influence of early maternal care on perceptual attentional set shifting and stress reactivity in adult rats. Dev Psychobiol 58:39-51
Boyce, W Thomas (2016) Differential Susceptibility of the Developing Brain to Contextual Adversity and Stress. Neuropsychopharmacology 41:142-62
Beery, Annaliese K; McEwen, Lisa M; MacIsaac, Julia L et al. (2016) Natural variation in maternal care and cross-tissue patterns of oxytocin receptor gene methylation in rats. Horm Behav 77:42-52
Lussier, Alexandre A; Stepien, Katarzyna A; Neumann, Sarah M et al. (2015) Prenatal alcohol exposure alters steady-state and activated gene expression in the adult rat brain. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 39:251-61
Boyce, W Thomas; Kobor, Michael S (2015) Development and the epigenome: the 'synapse' of gene-environment interplay. Dev Sci 18:1-23
Jiang, Ruiwei; Jones, Meaghan J; Chen, Edith et al. (2015) Discordance of DNA methylation variance between two accessible human tissues. Sci Rep 5:8257
Quas, Jodi A; Yim, Ilona S; Oberlander, Tim F et al. (2014) The symphonic structure of childhood stress reactivity: patterns of sympathetic, parasympathetic, and adrenocortical responses to psychological challenge. Dev Psychopathol 26:963-82
Guendelman, Sylvia; Goodman, Julia; Kharrazi, Martin et al. (2014) Work-family balance after childbirth: the association between employer-offered leave characteristics and maternity leave duration. Matern Child Health J 18:200-8
Essex, Marilyn J; Boyce, W Thomas; Hertzman, Clyde et al. (2013) Epigenetic vestiges of early developmental adversity: childhood stress exposure and DNA methylation in adolescence. Child Dev 84:58-75

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