Matthew Suderman

Background

About Matthew Suderman

I am working toward an academic appointment that will allow me to build a research group to further investigate the role of epigenetics in early life experience and later associated diseases using a biocomputational approach. Specifically, I want to: • Identify genomic loci whose methylation status in easily available cell types such as T cells or buccal cells are associated with specific forms of early life adversity such as poverty, abuse, neglect, trauma or malnutrition. These will be used to identify at-risk children who could benefit from interventions ranging from drug treatment to environmental adjustments. Our collaborator Richard Tremblay is already involved in this kind of research though he is currently using questionnaires rather than molecular markers as we plan to do (Borge, Rutter et al. • Use such loci to evaluate and improve interventions by taking readings at regular time points throughout the course of the intervention to see how methylation levels change, especially to determine if they return to more normal levels. • To investigate the mechanisms explaining why such loci are predictive of early life experience and to use this information to identify other loci that provide even more robust predictions. This will involve parallel investigations in animal models and human populations.