Prof Meena Kumari
Director of ISER - Professor, University of Essex
Research Interests:
- The biological pathways by which the social environment and health are linked over the lifecourse
- Use of genetic epidemiology to inform understanding of the causal influence of environmentally modifiable risk factors
Meena is a leading expert in biomarkers and genetics, and has worked to apply insights from these areas to better understand ageing, cardiovascular disease, and health inequalities using the Whitehall II cohort study of British civil servants and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. She remains an Honorary Professor at UCL.
Meena is the topic champion for health and biomarker content and research in Understanding Society and continues to lead research on the social-biological interface and genetic epidemiology as an investigator for the study.
Additionally Professor Kumari leads the Centre for Doctoral Training in Biosocial Research (Soc-B) at Essex University (in collaboration with UCL and University of Manchester).
Soc-B is now open and accepting applications studentships for October 2022 entry.
See here for publications pre-April 2014
Outputs
Insecure renting ages you faster than owning a home, unemployment or obesity. Better housing policy can change this
While chronological ageing happens at the same speed for everyone, biological ageing varies greatly. It depends on the lives we lead and the risks we’re exposed to. Biological age reflects the gradually accumulating damage to cells and tissues in the body.
Difficult childhood experiences could make us age prematurely
In a new blog for the Conversation, Professor Meena Kumari and Research Associate Amanda Hughes investigate how socioeconomic disadvantage and other environmental factors can affect our biology and life expectancy.
Society and health are intricately related
Professor Michaela Benzeval and Professor Meena Kumari on new data to predict the health needs of the future