Event Details

20^th October at 10:00-11:00
Onsite event
in Lauren 1, Medisiina D

Prof. Deborah Dewey, University of Calgary, Canada
From preconception to childhood: How maternal exposures shape maternal and child health trajectories

Dr. Deborah Dewey is a Professor of Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary and co-lead of the Alberta Pregnancy and Nutrition (APrON) study. Her interdisciplinary research explores a fundamental question in maternal and child health: how do experiences and exposures before and during pregnancy shape maternal health and children’s health and development?

Drawing on the APrON cohort and global data, Dr. Dewey investigates how preconception, prenatal, and early childhood exposures—including environmental chemicals, heavy metals, maternal nutrition, and maternal mental health—can influence maternal well-being as well as children’s developing brains, cognition, behavior, and physical health. Her work also explores how these early-life exposures may become biologically embedded through changes in epigenetic profiles and biological aging, providing new insights into the pathways linking maternal environmental histories to lifelong health and neurodevelopment.

Her research spans Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa and brings together perspectives from pediatrics, epidemiology, neuroscience, nutrition, and environmental health to better understand—and ultimately improve—health across the life course.