Congress is making key funding decisions now—and your voice matters. Urge lawmakers to prioritize robust funding for research and statistics in FY 2027.

📢 Take action: Send a message to your Members of Congress using our template. buff.ly/gYP35XX

New work from MiCDA @umisr.bsky.social @um-src.bsky.social @um-psc.bsky.social affiliates @colterm.bsky.social Jessica Faul in Social Science & Medicine

Remarkable concordance in associations between epigenetic clocks and health behaviors across three countries

myumi.ch/Nr8bV

📢 Applications are open for the 2026 #JacobsCIFARFellowship!

A new partnership between the Jacobs Foundation and CIFAR supports early- & mid-career researchers advancing how children learn & develop worldwide.

🗓️ Apply by 2 February 2026 → cifarportal.smapply.io/prog/jacobs_...

Causes behind childhood mental health problems classed as internalizing (e.g., anxiety, depression) or externalizing (aggression, ADHD) aren't fully known, but epigentics may play a role. A new scoping review looks at how DNAm summary measures relate to these traits: doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

🚨 New Paper Alert🚨 focused on #representation and #generaliability in #neuroscience. A real labor of love. Was rejected from [… checks list 🤔] SIX journals and originally presented in 2020 at FLUX to find a home at AMPPS #persistence

A deadly shooting at the CDC shook its scientists. Now they want answers from RFK Jr. CDC Director Susan Monarez convened an online all-hands meeting of the agency division that focuses on vaccines, and employees called out Kennedy’s rhetoric specifically.

Exclusive: CDC Director Susan Monarez met with its vaccine-focused center to talk about yesterday’s shooting. I listened to a recording. Scientists and officials are shaken & pointing fingers at RFK Jr. Many said his vilification and misinfo turned them into targets. www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

SRC at ESRA 2025 | Morning, Wednesday, July 16 9:00-10:30 – Chendi Zhao (Presenting Author), Brady T. West, Abdelaziz Adawe, Understanding the Variability in Post-Survey Interviewer Observations in a National Panel Survey: Evidence from Health and Retirement Study. Room: Ruppert 0.33. 9:00-10:30 – Mari Toomse-Smith, Erica Wong, Colter Mitchell, Jonathan Burton, Christine Woods, Shaun Scholes, Anne Conolly (organizers), Session: New approaches to biomeasure collection in social surveys. Room: Ruppert 116. 9:00-10:30 – Jessica Faul (Presenting Author), The effect of returning results on consent to medical history and record linkage in the Health and Retirement Study. Room: Ruppert 116. 9:00-10:30 – Colter Mitchell, Making Neuroimaging Research More Generalizable: Factors Related to Participation in Neuroimaging Research. Room: Ruppert 116. 9:00-10:30 – Deji Suolang (Presenting Author), Brady West, Assessing the Generalizability of Imputation-Based Integration of Wearable Sensor Data and Survey Self-Reports: Insights From a Simulation Study. Room: Ruppert Wit – 0.52. 11:00-12:30 – Brady West (Presenting Author), Chendi Zhao, Heather Schroeder, Paul Burton, Eva Leissou, Andrew Hupp, The Effects of Alternative Mixed-Mode Household Screening Protocols and Invitation Letter Envelope Types on Participant Recruitment: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study. Room: Ruppert 042.

Tomorrow is a busy day at the @esrasurvey.bsky.social‬ 2025 conference. This morning SRC researchers are presenting on post-survey observations, biomeasures, neuroimaging, wearable sensor data & mixed-mode household screening protocols. See our full schedule of activities at #ESRA25 myumi.ch/z9jDP

Physical Activity Is Associated With Decreased Epigenetic Aging: Findings From the Health and Retirement Study Background Epigenetic aging measures or clocks are DNA methylation-based indicators of biological aging, linked to health outcomes and disease risk. Physical activity and exercise may influence epig...

🧪Using the Health & Retirement Study, Farah Ammous, Mark D. Peterson, @colterm.bsky.social‬ & Jessica Faul find physical activity is linked to slower epigenetic aging. Lifelong & current activity strongly predict healthier aging myumi.ch/W6p1D

I expect phones have a very small effect and could go either way. The evidence is that this is exactly what we would expect based on decades of ideational demographic research by scholars like Arland Thornton and Ron Lesthaeghe who have documented how fertility ideals changed globally.

The social context of educational effort – implications for psychological and physiological health in adolescence Individual educational effort usually promotes educational success and attainment, and generally has long-lasting positive consequences. However, ther…

🧪Using @ffcws.bsky.social‬, @colterm.bsky.social‬ & coauthors find that educational effort is consistently protective for depressive symptoms in adolescents, but is linked to accelerated epigenic aging among disadvantaged Hispanic youth myumi.ch/79Jzr #epigenetics #education

Grant terminations have gotten most of the attention, but death-by-non-renewal has been pretty devastating, too.

Another #DemographyMinute from #PAA2025: Farah Ammous of @um-src.bsky.social describes Health and Retirement Study research demonstrating that physical activity is associated with reduced risk of chronic disease in older adults. With Helen Meier, @colterm.bsky.social and Jessica Faul

New work from MiCDA @umisr.bsky.social @um-src.bsky.social @um-psc.bsky.social affiliate @colterm.bsky.social in Clinical Epigenetics

Maternal epigenetic index links early neglect to later neglectful care and other psychopathological, cognitive, and bonding effects

myumi.ch/D8kqm

Social Network Bridging, Social Isolation, and Biological Aging Session: Social Isolation Across the Life Course Saturday, April 12th, 2:00-3:15PM Room: Cherry Blossom Brea Perry Siyun Peng Byungkyu Lee Colter Mitchell

🌸 This is the 1st analysis of the relationship btwn social connectedness & epigenetic clocks using an egocentric network approach. The lack of social connectedness may be linked to epigenetic markers of risk for multimorbidity & accelerated aging. @colterm.bsky.social #PAA2025 myumi.ch/e3k2x

Longitudinal Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health and Socioeconomics Outcomes in a Vulnerable Population Session: Exploring the Broader Context of COVID-19: Results From the Social, Behavioral, and Economic COVID Coordinating Center Saturday, April 12th, 9:30AM-10:45PM Room: Monument Colter Mitchell Helen Meier Christopher Monk

🌸 @maggielevenstein.bsky.social is the discussant in the #PAA2025 session where @colterm.bsky.social will present Longitudinal Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health and Socioeconomics Outcomes in a Vulnerable Population with @helenmeier.bsky.social & @christophermonk.bsky.social myumi.ch/XydmW

Session: Aging and the Life Course; and Applied Demography Liberty & Independence Ballrooms DNA Methylation as a Surrogate Biomarker for Early-Life Poverty Friday, April 11th, 8:30 - 10:00AM Colter Mitchell Daniel Notterman Joshua Goode Trey Smith Jessica Faul

🌸 🧬 Childhood poverty is associated with poor health across the lifespan, but how do early-life socioeconomic conditions become biologically embedded? Joshua Goode, Trey Smith, Jessica Faul, @colterm.bsky.social, and Daniel Notterman present at #PAA2025. @um-src.bsky.social myumi.ch/qZk4m 🧪

DNA Methylation as a Surrogate Biomarker for Early-Life Poverty Friday, April 11, 2025, 8:30-10:00, Poster Session: Aging and the Life Course; and Applied Demography Joshua Goode, Trey Smith, Jessica Faul, Colter Mitchell, Daniel Notterman

Joshua Goode, Trey Smith, Jessica Faul, @colterm.bsky.social & Daniel Notterman will report on their findings regarding DNA Methylation as a Surrogate Biomarker for Early-Life Poverty at #PAA2025. Friday, 4/11, 8:30am More details: myumi.ch/n18Qd

Physical Activity Is Associated With Lower Inflammation and Reduced Risk of Chronic Disease in Older Adults From the Health and Retirement Study Poster Session: Health and Health Behavior Friday, April 11th, 1:45-3:15PM Room: Liberty & Independence Ballrooms Farah Ammous Helen Meier Jessica Faul Colter Mitchell

🌸 New research Farah Ammous, @helenmeier.bsky.social , Jessica Faul & @colterm.bsky.social #HRS indicates that physical activity is associated with lower inflammation levels, along with a diminished risk of chronic disease in older adults. #PAA2025. @um-psc.bsky.social myumi.ch/A1dXx

Today I got to visit my 14th @bigtenplus.bsky.social campus, Indiana University, a day before an Aging Symposium. I know it’s not even Spring yet but this campus is gorgeous. These pictures don’t do it justice—need to come back when it’s green.

Historic Structural Racism and Perceived Stress in Adolescents This study is the first to examine the impact of structural racism from historic redlining practices on present-day perceived stress in adolescents.

Sarah Laurent, @colterm.bsky.social, Luke Hyde, @christophermonk.bsky.social, @helenmeier.bsky.social et al. find redlining - discriminatory lending practices from the early 20th century - continues to impact present day neighborhood poverty, resulting in increased adolescent stress. myumi.ch/61r26

At NIH, ‘everyone is on edge’ as they brace for deep cuts and more centralized control As the NIH braces for cuts of up to 5,000 of its 20,000 positions, “people are scrambling and freaking out,” a researcher said.

NIH is likely cutting up to 25% of its workforce this week. NIH staff have substantial expertise, typically PhDs. And they really *believe* in the work. NIH's will not be able to meet its mission w/these cuts. The scientific threat is not just direct funding cuts www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/n...

The damage being done to American science, particularly in the area of medical research will cost countless lives and take decades to repair. This is truly a catastrophe.

Increasing diversity in neuroimaging research: Participant-driven recommendations from a qualitative study of an under-represented sample Enhancing the generalizability of neuroimaging studies requires actively engaging participants from under-represented communities. This paper leverage…

🧪 Edward Huntley, Luke Hyde, @colterm.bsky.social, @christophermonk.bsky.social et al leveraged qualitative data to outline recommendations for incorporating underrepresented populations in neuroimaging studies, which is important for improving these studies' generalizability myumi.ch/4mnpZ

Yes, Biden Spent Millions on Transgender Animal Experiments Last night, President Donald J. Trump highlighted many of the egregious examples of waste, fraud, and abuse funded by American taxpayers, including $8

These are not "transgender mice"

These are mouse models used to determine the effects of certain medications on health. You know, the thing even those opposed to transgender healthcare often state we should be doing.

www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202...

From an FDA probationary employee: the firings are coming from outside the agency without cause and with zero input from supervisors (as promised.) More firings expected between now and Tuesday. Do not open the termination email before you download your documents and performance evals.

PAA and the Association of Population Centers express alarm about recent events in which federal agencies have been purging scientific and statistical data from publicly available portals and websites. Read our full statement: www.populationassociation.org/blogs/paa-we...

Researchers rush to preserve federal health databases before they disappear from government websites Journalists have long relied on federal health data for their reporting. We include several tips that they can use to help researchers preserve the data.

“A group of researchers and students at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is gathered today for a data preservation marathon, scraping and downloading data related to health equity from U.S. government agency websites before they disappear.”

CNN has now confirmed this.

www.cnn.com/2025/01/24/h...

A thread on the research and science that is done at the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan @um-src.bsky.social. I think many people think we just collect surveys--but we are so much more! Our focus is on interdisciplinary social science to understand human behavior through surveys

New paper in @pspolisci.bsky.social by Kirk Hawkins and I discussing the future of scholarship on populism and its effect on democratic contestation, participation, and representation. We give special attention to how we measure populism, as many current measurses are inadequate for future research.