28th November at 15:00
Onsite event
Lauren 1, Medisiina D1017
Autumn 2024 program

Prof. Carolina de Weerth, MD, PhD, Radboud university Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Stress in Early Life – Mechanisms and Potential Impact

Carolina de Weerth obtained a master in biology (animal behavior, Utrecht University) and a PhD in developmental psychology (University of Groningen). After a 5-year postdoc position at the department of child psychiatry (Utrecht University Medical Center), de Weerth obtained an important personal Vidi grant and was offered a permanent position at the department of developmental psychology of Radboud University where she worked for 15 years. De Weerth became full professor in 2014. In 2018, after being awarded a prestigious personal Vici grant, de Weerth became PI and group leader at the Radboud University Medical Center (Radboudumc) and Donders Institute. De Weerth carries out innovative research focusing on uncovering how early environmental factors influence development, partly determining children’s further life trajectories. She specifically studies relations between prenatal and postnatal maternal stress and anxiety, as well as caregiving choices and quality, on children’s development, including physical health and behavioral regulation. De Weerth includes relevant physiological systems and biomarkers to uncover the mechanisms underlying these relations (e.g., intestinal microbiota, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, maternal milk and telomeres).

Maternal prenatal and postnatal stress has been often associated with infant physical development and health, as well as psychological functioning and behavior. In this TREMENDO seminar presentation professor de Weerth will talk about stress in early life in low-risk community samples. The presentation will revolve around several questions related to the impact and mechanisms of stress in healthy, low-risk samples of young children. She will introduce results from multidisciplinary prospective longitudinal studies from the Developmental Psychobiology Lab (DPBlab) which include also a range of biological measures of stress physiology.

IPP seminar series covers the diversity of biomedical/medical research performed in Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology research unit in Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku plus interesting talks by visitors from national and international research collaboration networks.IPP seminar series covers the diversity of biomedical/medical research performed in Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology research unit in Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku plus interesting talks by visitors from national and international research collaboration networks.