Dr. Shanting Chen, Assistant Professor, received the National Institute on Agings (NIA) K01 Career Development Award for her project titled Adapting Machine Learning Approaches to Identify Robust Measures and Key Risk and Protective Factors of Changes in Allostatic Load across the Adult Lifespan.
Dr. Chen received $633,397 in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate how stress and life experiences get under the skin to shape long-term health and aging. Her project leverages longitudinal, nationally representative datasets the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) along with DNA methylation data to advance the measurement of allostatic load, a biomarker of cumulative physiological wear and tear. Findings from this research will establish best practices for assessing stress biology in population-based datasets, identify critical periods for intervention, and inform strategies to promote healthy aging.
