Laboratory

BIOSFER

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Research Area

Research Arm "Past"

The research arm "Past" explores early life, prenatal, and intergenerational exposures to examine their potential effects on present fecundity and fertility, using stored samples, archival data, and linked registers. Research emerging from varied disciplines from medical to social sciences demonstrates that health and social outcomes often have their roots in the past, but little is known if this holds also for fecundity and fertility. We posit that both fecundity and fertility are determined by life-course exposures, ranging from fetal exposures to endocrine disruptors to family dynamics, and we hypothesize that the key to understanding the level and variation lies in early, possibly prenatal or early life exposures. We leverage the exceptional detail of stored biomarker samples from fetal life onwards and the intergenerational depth of our datasets to explore where in life are the roots of reproductive outcomes.