GCPH Seminar Series 8 Lecture 4 - Prof Jonathan Seckl

Developmental programming - how your parents' environment before you were born impacts on you and your children's risk of disease

Overview

We all blame our genes for many of our features, behaviours and illnesses. Recent studies suggest that the environment before birth is also a major influence on the risk of ill-health across the lifespan and perhaps into a further generation.

This process, called ‘developmental programming’, has been studied intensively in recent years and is beginning to reveal a process called epigenetics which underpins growth, behaviour and health risks.

In this seminar, Prof Seckl will discuss these issues and how for example, stress during pregnancy or how well a child’s grandfather ate, impacts on their life.