Research in the Newman Lab
The Newman Lab combines field and laboratory techniques to examine the persistent effects of the early life environment. We investigate questions that integrate ecology and physiology with the goal of understanding how the early life environment shapes stress physiology, behaviour and fitness. A growing body of biomedical research suggests that the connection between early life stress and adult phenotypes resides in the epigenome, a fundamental mechanism that connects genes and the environment. The emerging area of ecological epigenetics is one research direction of the lab and links environmental factors, behaviour and stress physiology to multigenerational studies of offspring physiology and fitness.