Across 15 cohorts (birth to 24 years), 20 epigenetic clocks and eight brain age models predicted chronological age modestly, stabilizing by middle childhood; their age residuals were weakly associated.

bioRxiv · Jul 30, 2026 · PreprintNeuroscience✦ In-depth digest

Epigenomic embedding of childhood adversity links to disease risk and chronic immune changes

Darina Czamara, Dave Laurence Juntilla, Aayah Nounu, Annemarie Luise Weihs, Mira Erhart, Lisa Maier, Miriam Leskien, Johanna Tuhkanen, Aline Doreen Scherff, Natan Yusupov, Jonas Hagenberg, Anna Sophie Fröhlich, Vera N Karlbauer, Sandra Van der Auwera, Tanja Maria Brückl, , Elisabeth B. Binder

The paper identifies contmeQTLs linking childhood adversity to epigenetic changes in immune cells, which are associated with disease risk and inflammatory profiles.

Biological Psychiatry · Apr 25, 2026Peer-reviewedGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Gestational and postnatal age associations for striatal tissue iron deposition in early infancy

Laura Mildred Cabral, Finnegan J. Calabro, Jerod M. Rasmussen, Will Foran, Lucille A. Moore, Alice M. Graham, Thomas G. O’Connor, Pathik D. Wadhwa, Sonja Entringer, Damien A. Fair, Claudia Buß, Ashok Panigrahy, Beatríz Luna

The paper measures striatal iron deposition in neonates using MRI and finds age-related changes in specific subregions but not others.

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · Jul 25, 2023Peer-reviewedNeuroscience

Variably methylated regions in the newborn epigenome: environmental, genetic and combined influences

Darina Czamara, Gökçen Eraslan, Christian Magnus Page, Jari M. T. Lahti, Marius Lahti‐Pulkkinen, Esa K Hämäläinen, Eero Kajantie, Hannele M. Laivuori, Pia Villa, Rebecca M. Reynolds, Wenche Nystad, Siri E. Håberg, Stephanie J. London, Kieran J. O’Donnell, Elika Garg, , Robert M. Maier

The paper examines how genetic and environmental factors influence DNA methylation at variably methylated regions in neonatal blood, finding that combined effects best explain methylation variability.

Nature Communications · Jun 11, 2019Peer-reviewedGenetics