Thursday, May 15 — 10:15 to 11 a.m.
Chair
Lauren Schmitz
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Lauren Schmitz is an associate professor of public affairs at UW-Madison. Her research uses data and methods from economics, sociology, population health, and genomics to examine how social inequality erodes health at a molecular level and speeds up the aging process. She takes a life course view of aging that considers how social disadvantage shapes health from the prenatal period through adulthood and into old age. She received her PhD in economics from the New School for Social Research and her MS in Human Genetics from the University of Michigan.
Panelists
Moiz Bhai
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Moiz Bhai is an Associate Professor of Economics at University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a Fellow at The Initiative on Enabling Choice and Competition at the University of Chicago Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics. His recent research focuses on the economic and policy implications of scope of practice occupational licensing reform, health insurance reform in Medicare and Medicare Advantage, and price regulation in healthcare.
Presentation or paper
Genetic Signatures of Non-Random Selection: Polygenic Scores and the Military Draft
Kyle Bourassa
Durham VA Health Care System
Kyle Bourassa is a Staff Psychologist in the Research Service of the Durham VA Medical System and an Affiliate Investigator at Georgetown University in the Department of Psychology. He is currently funded by a Career Development Award (IK2CX002694-01) awarded by the VA Office of Research and Development. Kyle received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona and completed his doctoral internship at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System in Seattle. He was funded as a T32 postdoctoral scholar by a National Institute on Aging training grant (T32-AG000029) provided to Duke University Medical Center and completed an advanced fellowship in aging at the Durham VA before transitioning to his current role as a PI at the Durham VA. Kyle’s research focuses on understanding how adversity might be associated with the onset of chronic disease across the lifespan, with a particular focus on the role of accelerated aging.
Presentation or paper
Accelerated epigenetic aging and prospective morbidity and mortality among U.S. veterans
Ryan Fraser
University of Michigan
Ryan Fraser is a second-year PhD student in Economics & Business at the University of Michigan, joint with the Department of Economics and Ross School of Business. His research focuses on the intersection of public, health, and family economics.
Presentation or paper
How similar is sibling mortality? Investigating the determinants of population-level mortality inequalities using US Census data
Rafael Geurgas Zavarizz
Purdue University
Rafael Geurgas is a postdoctoral researcher in sociogenomics at Purdue University’s Department of Sociology. With a background in physics, he earned a master’s degree in ultra-high-energy cosmic rays before transitioning to machine learning applications in social networks. His Ph.D. research involved applying machine learning to social networks to study how ideological misinformation bubbles about the COVID-19 vaccine form on Twitter, where he collaborated extensively with sociologists. This experience deepened his passion for understanding social behaviors, leading him to transition to the sociology department at Purdue University, where he now focuses his research. His current work centers on developing machine learning models to predict major mental disorders in adulthood, particularly depression, using polygenic risk scores and environmental data from adolescence. He utilizes the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health cohort) to explore genetic and social influences on mental health outcomes.
Presentation or paper
Deep Learning Techniques for Detecting Depression Using Polygenic Risk Scores and Environmental Factors
Wenhua (Zoey) Lai
Wayne State University, Institute of Gerontology
Wenhua (Zoey) Lai is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Gerontology (IOG) at Wayne State University, She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Michigan State University. Her research centers on health disparities and social determinants of health and aging. Specifically, she investigates racial/ethnic differences in 1) stress exposure and protective factors associated with depression, dementia, and cognitive aging; 2) the caregiving network of persons living with dementia (PLwD); and 3) the biosocial mechanisms underlying dementia and accelerated biological aging among Black and Latinx older adults. Her scholarship enhances the understanding of social determinants of health by highlighting how cognitive health disparities, as well as those among minority groups, result from increased stress exposure, disadvantaged employment trajectories, and reduced benefits gained from social support.
Presentation or paper
Employment Trajectories and Biological Aging: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Work Instability and Epigenetic Age Acceleration
Lauren Opsasnick
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Lauren Opsasnick is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Applied Health Research on Aging (CAHRA) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding the complex relationship between psychosocial factors and epigenetics, and how these interactions influence chronic diseases and cognitive function. This work bridges several scientific disciplines to examine how environmental and social stressors can alter gene expression and, in turn, affect disease susceptibility and cognitive outcomes. The ultimate goal of her research is to advance our understanding of how genetic and environmental factors converge to shape health and disease.
Presentation or paper
Depressive symptoms partially mediate the relationship between psychosocial factors and epigenetic age acceleration in a multi-racial/ethnic sample of older adults
Kelly Rentscher
Medical College of Wisconsin
Dr. Kelly Rentscher is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and an MCW Cancer Center Scholar at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology. Her research examines how experiences of stress and adversity increase risk for accelerated aging and age-related disease in midlife adults and cancer survivors, with a focus on transplant and cellular therapy recipients.
Presentation or paper
Lifetime chronic stress exposures, stress hormones, and biological aging: Results from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study
Wesley Wang
Purdue University
Bio coming soon.
Presentation or paper
Biological Aging Through Childhood Adversity: Impacts on Health and Life History Strategies