Plenary: "Developmental pathways to disease and how the environment before and after birth affects risk of chronic disease/infant development"

Professor Mark Hanson is the founding Director of the Institute of Developmental Sciences at the University of Southampton (opened by HRH The Princess Royal in 2007) and British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Science (from 2002). On moving from UCL to Southampton in 2000 he established the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) Centre in the Faculty of Medicine and was one of the founders (and is currently President) of the International DOHaD Society. Mark's research concerns several aspects of development and health, ranging from how the environment during development (before and after birth) can affect the later risk of chronic non-communicable diseases to population studies aimed at the early identification of risk so that timely preventative interventions can be made. With colleagues he is exploring the epigentic processes which underlie such risks, and which may serve as valuable early life biomarkers. Work is ongoing on these problems in both developed and developing countries in may parts of the world.