Exploring early‑life health through infant stem cells
The Molecular Health Lab studies how early-life environments. especially during pregnancy, shape long-term metabolic health. We focus on the earliest origins of obesity and diabetes, with the goal of understanding how disease risk is built into our biology, long before symptoms appear.
We study how pregnancy shapes the biology of the developing child, especially in stem and progenitor cells that influence lifelong metabolism.
Most chronic diseases don’t begin when symptoms appear, they begin much earlier. If disease risk starts before birth, prevention has to start there too.
Explore our research, publications, and essays to learn how early biology shapes our health, and how to make sense of the science behind it.
The lab is led by
Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine
I study how health is shaped before birth, during the earliest stages of fetal development. I lead the Molecular Health Lab, where we investigate how experiences and exposures during pregnancy become can impact the developing stem and progenitor cells, influencing metabolic health across the lifespan.
Alongside our research, I also maintain a writing project that explores the ideas, questions, and experiences that shape our scientific work.
Essays
This is where I reflect on my broader view of the science: how health begins, how we study it, and how we decide what to trust.
I write about: