Social Genomics
Prof. Dr. Michael Shanahan
The Social Genomics Lab comprises scientists from various fields, such as Sociology, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Statistics, and Demography, with the goal of studying the social correlates of gene expression profiles. We study gene expression profiles that represent the molecular underpinnings of diseases and aging, and how socioeconomic status and health behaviors predict these profiles. Our lab has access to a proprietary dataset, Add Health, which includes longitudinal social data and gene expression profiles from about 4.500 people between the ages of 12 and 43. In addition, we study the ten most common chronic conditions of aging, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and plan to expand our research to cancers and copy number variants, which are associated with severe neurodevelopmental disorders. The Lab has also developed methods to study when in life risk factors predict the profiles and the resulting evidence can help policy-makers to target health interventions to the most salient periods of life.
Recent Publications:
Sudharshan Ravi, Michael J. Shanahan, Brandt Levitt, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Steven W. Cole. (In press). Socioeconomic inequalities in early adulthood disrupt the immune transcriptomic landscape via upstream regulators. Scientific Reports.
Julien Bodelet, Cecilia Potente, Guillaume Blanc, Justin Chumbley, Hira Imeri, Scott Hofer, Kathleen Harris, Graciela Muniz Terrera, Michael Shanahan. (In press). A Bayesian functional approach to test models of life course epidemiology over continuous time. International Journal of Epidemiology.
Shanahan, M., Cole, S., Ravi, S., Chumbley, J., Xu, W., Potente, C., Levitt, B., Bodelet, J., Aiello, A., Gaydosh, L., Harris, K. M. (2022). Socioeconomic inequalities in molecular risk for chronic diseases observed in young adulthood. PNAS 119. PDF (PDF, 1 MB)
Potente, C., Chumbley, J., Xu, W., Levitt, B., Cole, S. W., Ravi, S., Bodelet, J.S., Gaydosh, L. Harris, K. M., Shanahan, M. J. (in press). Socioeconomic inequalities characterize molecular risk for aging in young adulthood. American Journal of Epidemiology
Chumbley JR, Xu W, Potente C, Harris KM, Shanahan M. (2021). A Bayesian approach to comparing common models of life course epidemiology. International Journal of Epidemiology. 50(5): 1660-1670 PDF (PDF, 458 KB)
Potente, C, Harris, KM, Chumbley, J., Cole, SW, Gaydosh, L., Xu, W., Levitt, B., Shanahan, MJ. (2021). The early life course of body weight and gene expression signatures for disease. American Journal of Epidemiology. 190(8): 1533-1540 PDF (PDF, 219 KB)
Cole, SW, Shanahan, MJ, Gaydosh, L., & Harris, KM. (2020). Inflammatory and antiviral gene expression in Add Health: Molecular pathways to social disparities in disease emerge by young adulthood. PNAS, 117 (9), 4601-4608. PDF (PDF, 1 MB)