About

Dr. Christopher W. Kuzawa is a Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology and the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University. He is a biological anthropologist with research interests in developmental biology, human evolution, and health. His group explores developmental influences on adult biology and health, the psychobiology of human fatherhood, non-genetic forms of biological inheritance, and the energetics and evolution of the human brain. Additionally, his work addresses the history and misuse of race concepts in anthropology and beyond. Dr. Kuzawa is committed to engaging with societal issues related to human biology, exemplified by his testimony to the State of California Task Force on reparations for African Americans and his 2023 Op Ed in the Los Angeles Times discussing health disparities and reparations. He holds a PhD in Anthropology and an MSPH in Epidemiology from Emory University. Currently, he is also a John D. MacArthur Professor of Anthropology and a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, co-director of the Health Inequality Network of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group, and an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Biology
• Medicine
• Sociology
• Gender studies
• Epistemology
• Psychology
• Physiology
• Law
• Bioinformatics
• Ecology
• Environmental health
• Social psychology
• Environmental ethics
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• Primate gut microbiota induce evolutionarily salient changes in mouse neurodevelopment

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2026-01-05 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Multiple primate species, including humans, evolved brains that are exceptionally large relative to their body sizes. These large brains coevolved with metabolic adaptations that enhance cerebral energy supply, including increased circulating glucose levels. While the gut microbiota (GM) is known to influence host metabolism, its potential role in primate brain evolution remains unclear. To investigate this, we inoculated germ-free mice with the GMs of primate species selected to separate the effects of brain size (encephalization) from phylogenetic relatedness: humans (large-brained, Catarrhini), macaques (smaller-brained, Catarrhini), and squirrel monkeys (large-brained, Platyrrhini). We first show that differences in brain gene expression between mice inoculated with human versus macaque GMs resemble those observed between actual human and macaque brains. Comparing the effects of the different primate GMs on mouse brain gene expression further revealed that despite greater evolutionary distance, the GMs from the two larger-brained species (humans and squirrel monkeys) similarly upregulated genes associated with energy production. Notably, human GMs specifically increased the expression of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, and these gene expression changes correlated with increased abundances of GM metabolic pathways related to glucose metabolism and gluconeogenesis. Human GMs also downregulated evolutionarily conserved genes implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. Although these are findings based on a small sample of primate species and must be interpreted as preliminary, they suggest that species differences in GM composition can influence brain metabolism and raise the possibility that the GM could have played a supporting role in primate encephalization.

  PublisherDOI

• Recalled Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict Behavioral Traits Associated With an Accelerated Life History in Cebu, Philippines

  American Journal of Human Biology · 2026-04-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  OBJECTIVES: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have long been associated with poor health in adulthood, with many researchers interpreting these findings as evidence of a "fast" life history. In this study we utilize data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) to test the expectations of this framework among inhabitants of the Cebu metropolitan area in the Philippines. METHODS: Data on development, behavior, and reproduction were collected from study participants (N = 1288, 54% male) over the course of multiple survey rounds, beginning before their birth in 1983-84. In 2018, participants completed a retrospective ACEs questionnaire. We built discrete hazard models and generalized linear models to test whether recalled ACEs predict characteristics of a "faster" life history in CLHNS. RESULTS: There was no significant relationship between ACEs and maturational timing, but individuals who recalled more ACEs engaged in health-risk behaviors earlier and exhibited younger ages at sexual debut. Among women specifically, ACEs also predicted a younger age at first reproduction and higher gravidity. After splitting ACEs into two dimensions, the same results were observed in response to deprivation but not threat. CONCLUSIONS: As in other low resource settings, physical maturation in Cebu was accelerated in households with greater access to resources but not in response to early psychosocial stressors as indicated by recalled ACEs. However, individuals who experienced ACEs did exhibit behavioral profiles consistent with faster life history scheduling and greater investment in reproduction.

  PublisherDOI

• Fathers’ caregiving time before and after the COVID-19 pandemic

  PLoS ONE · 2026-03-16

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to greater day-to-day time spent together for many families. Some research in Euro-American settings indicated that fathers spent more time caring for their children during the pandemic than previously, with the potential for lasting effects on fathers' caregiving. However, there are few longitudinal studies with post-pandemic paternal care data and analyses from non-Euro-American contexts. We drew on a large sample of men (N = 649; Obs. = 1286) enrolled in a longitudinal study in the Philippines with waves of data collection prior to the pandemic in 2009 (wave 1) and 2014 (wave 2) and a third wave post-pandemic in 2022-23 (wave 3). Our main analyses focus on within-individual change in paternal caregiving for men residing with young children (N = 307) from the pre-pandemic (wave 2) to post-pandemic period (wave 3). Fathers showed meaningful within-individual declines in routine (intensive) caregiving time from the pre-pandemic (wave 2) to the post-pandemic (wave 3). However, they reported comparable engagement in overall, recreational, and educational care post-pandemic relative to their pre-pandemic levels at wave 2. Men's shifts in pre-to-post-pandemic employment status predicted their changes in caregiving time, particularly for educational care. The post-pandemic patterns we observed for educational care are potentially consistent with shifting dynamics for fathers' caregiving in this domain following the pandemic and complement results elsewhere connecting fathers' employment characteristics to their caregiving during and after the pandemic.

  PublisherDOI

• Greater than the sum of its parts: combining epigenetic clocks to characterize the association of biological age acceleration and adiposity in young Filipino adults

  medRxiv · 2026-03-31

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Background Diverse epigenetic clocks are known to capture health risks associated with increased adiposity, but their estimates have never been combined to represent a holistic estimate of biological age acceleration (BAA). There is also a gap in research using epigenetic clocks to study adiposity in lower-middle income Asian countries. Methods and Findings Data from 1,745 participants (21.7±0.3 years old, 45% female) of the Cebu (Philippines) Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey were analyzed. BAA was calculated using PCHorvath 2, PCHannum, PCPhenoAge, PCGrimAge, PCDNAmTL, and DunedinPACE. After ascertaining suitability for factor analysis (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin 0.81), factor analysis was used to create PCFactorAge. Analogously, FactorAge was created using Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, GrimAge, DNAmTL, and DunedinPACE. BMI, waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were used to represent adiposity. Linear regression was used to test the association of each adiposity measure with each BAA measure. BMI, WC, and WHtR were positively associated with both BAA combinations: 5 kg/m 2 higher BMI corresponded to 0.097 (p=0.015) standard deviation (SD) increase in FactorAge and 0.099 (p=0.004) SD increase in PCFactorAge; 10 cm increase in WC—with 0.091 (p=0.005) SD increase in FactorAge and 0.094 (p<0.001) SD increase in PCFactorAge; 0.1 increase in WHtR—with 0.164 (p=0.001) SD increase in FactorAge and 0.163 (p<0.001) SD increase in PCFactorAge. Additionally, WHtR was associated with meaningful increases in PhenoAge, PCPhenoAge, PCHorvath 2, PCHannum, PCGrimAge, and DunedinPACE. WC was positively associated with PCHorvath 2, PCHannum, PCPhenoAge, and DunedinPACE. BMI was positively associated with PCHannum, PCPhenoAge, and DunedinPACE. Conclusions Our study presents a novel approach to creating a BAA estimate using multiple epigenetic clocks and shows that adiposity measures predict this factor in a young Filipino cohort.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Distinct maternal DNA methylation associations with gestational age at early and late-mid term pregnancy in a low- and middle-income country: evaluation of biological, genetic, and psychosocial contributors

  BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth · 2025-10-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Mothers undergo physiological and molecular changes over the course of gestation. These modifications "get under the skin" and may be reflected in the maternal epigenome through processes such as DNA methylation. Such an epigenetic mark may offer insights into maternal responses to prenatal influences and biological cues from the developing fetus, thereby functioning as an indirect indicator of the conditions the fetus experiences in utero. We measured whole blood DNA methylation using the MethylationEPIC BeadChip Infinium microarray v1.0 in 22 pregnant women from Pakistan, a low- and middle-income country (LMIC), at two timepoints during their term pregnancies (early: 10-19 weeks and late-mid: 22-29 weeks). We used DNA methylation profiles to predict immune cell proportions and tested differences in these proportions and DNA methylation patterns between the two timepoints. Further, we evaluated DNA methylation associations with gestational age at each timepoint and examined the contribution of genetic, psychosocial, and biological factors. Our analyses documented changes in immune cell proportions and DNA methylation profiles over the course of gestation, albeit in a small percentage of the measured DNA methylome. We also observed timepoint-specific DNA methylation associations with gestational age, predominantly at early pregnancy, with predicted interleukin-6 level and socioeconomic status contributing to a few of these associations. On comparing to three external cohorts from different sociocultural contexts, we also noted these signatures to be unique to LMIC settings. Overall, these changes measured in term pregnancies may be used to assess both fluctuations in pregnancy and birth outcomes, particular in women from LMIC settings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Developmental Influences on Racial Inequities in Cardiovascular Health: The Push–Pull Forces That Uncouple Cardiovascular Disease From Birth Weight

  American Journal of Human Biology · 2025-08-01 · 1 citations

  review1st authorCorresponding

  In 2009 we published an article in the American Journal of Human Biology arguing for a developmental contribution to US racial inequities in cardiovascular disease (CVD), inspired by emerging evidence that stress during pregnancy reduces birth weight (BW) while also elevating offspring CVD risk. The 15 years since our piece was published provide an opportunity to update the status of the hypothesis. Although relevant studies are sparse, work to date has revealed an apparent paradox: although Black Americans have lower BWs and higher CVD rates, and even though lower BW elevates future CVD risk, studies generally report stronger inverse BW-CVD relationships in white compared to Black samples. Drawing on current understandings of intergenerational pathways, we propose an updated model that could help explain the weakening of BW-CVD relationships in Black Americans: Structural racism not only elevates CVD risk through pathways that reduce BW, as we originally emphasized, but also increases the likelihood of maternal weight gain and elevated glucose, which elevate offspring CVD risk but increase BW. We review newer evidence that these offsetting, "push-pull" effects on BW operate across the full BW spectrum. As a result, when BW is used as a marker, a dimension of CVD risk is rendered invisible, with the degree of invisibility proportionate to the strength of these opposing pathways. BW will thus be particularly uncoupled from CVD risk in minoritized US populations, who often face psychosocial stress but are also more likely to be exposed to environments that lead to weight gain and metabolic dysregulation.

  PublisherDOI

• Author response for "Longitudinal evidence linking childhood energetics, maturation, skeletal muscle mass and adult human male sociosexuality"

  2025-01-24

  peer-reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Evaluation of a DNA methylation-based measure of chronic inflammation in two generations of adults in metropolitan Cebu, Philippines

  medRxiv · 2025-03-25

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT Objectives Proxy measures of chronic inflammation derived from DNA methylation (DNAm) data have emerged as promising predictors of cardiometabolic disease risk in high income countries. This study investigates the performance of a recently validated DNAm-based measure of C-reactive protein (DNAm-CRP) in two generations of adults in the Philippines to evaluate its utility in lower and middle income settings experiencing high levels of endemic infections as well as rising rates of chronic degenerative diseases. Methods DNAm-CRP was calculated from 1,468 CpG sites on the Infinium MethylationEPIC v1.0 array applied to genomic DNA from leukocytes in young adults (N=1,665; 20-22 years) and older women (N=1,070; 35-68 years). C-reactive protein was determined in plasma using a high sensitivity immunoturbidimetric assay. Pearson correlation and least squares regression were implemented to evaluate the strength of association between DNAm-CRP and plasma CRP, and to investigate patterns of association between DNAm-CRP and established predictors of chronic inflammation. Results For younger adults, the correlation between DNAm-CRP and log-transformed CRP was 0.41, and DNAm-CRP explained 17.2% of the variance in CRP. For older women, the correlation was 0.47, with 22.7% explained variance in CRP. For both cohorts larger waist circumference was associated with higher DNAm-CRP. The presence of infectious symptoms at the time of blood collection and leukocyte composition were both significant predictors of DNAm-CRP. Conclusions In two generations of adults in the Philippines, we document strong correlations between DNAm-CRP and plasma CRP. DNAm-CRP may be a useful tool for research on chronic inflammation across a range of epidemiological and ecological settings globally, but future applications should consider how recent infections and the distribution of leukocyte subsets may confound or mediate associations of interest.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Accounting for differences between Infinium MethylationEPIC v2 and v1 in DNA methylation–based tools

  Life Science Alliance · 2025-07-08 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  The recently launched Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC v2.0 (EPICv2), successor of MethylationEPIC v1.0 (EPICv1), retains most of the probes in EPICv1, while expanding coverage of regulatory elements. The concordance between the two EPIC versions in DNA methylation-based tools has not yet been investigated. To address this, DNA methylation was profiled on both versions using matched blood samples across four cohorts spanning early to late adulthood. High concordance between versions at the array level but variable agreement at the individual probe level was noted. A significant contribution of the EPIC version to DNA methylation variation was observed, though it was to a smaller extent compared with sample relatedness and cell-type composition. Modest but significant differences in DNA methylation-based estimates between versions were observed, irrespective of the data preprocessing method used. Adjustments for EPIC version or calculation of estimates separately for each version largely mitigated these version-specific discordances. This work emphasizes the importance of accounting for EPIC version differences in research scenarios, especially in meta-analyses and longitudinal studies that require data harmonization across versions.

  PublisherDOI

• Longitudinal evidence linking childhood energetics, maturation, skeletal muscle mass and adult human male sociosexuality

  Royal Society Open Science · 2025-05-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Humans exhibit variation in their strategic expression of longer-term versus shorter-term mating strategies, including sociosexuality, which is defined as their interest and engagement in sexual activity outside of committed partnerships. There is substantial interest in the factors that drive variation in these strategies between individuals. Early life energetic conditions and psychosocial adversity may play key roles in shaping the expression of shorter-term mating strategies, particularly for males, given male–male mating competition. Drawing on a multi-decade study in the Philippines, we tested for links between males’ early life growth/maturation, adult skeletal muscle mass and childhood experiences of adversity with age at sexual debut ( n = 965) and adult sociosexuality ( n = 1594 obs.). Males who experienced more favourable childhood energetics had sex earlier and had more unrestricted sociosexuality, but these patterns were explained by males’ adult skeletal muscle mass. Males who were more maturationally advanced in adolescence also had younger ages at sexual debut and more unrestricted sociosexuality. We did not find evidence supporting the hypothesis that males exposed to early life adversity (family instability and sibling death) and favourable energetic conditions would show ‘faster’ life history strategies. Our findings point to the importance of developmental growth and maturation trajectories in energetically challenging ecologies to males’ later-life mating strategies.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Early Life Nutrition, Developmental Plasticity, and Reproductive Ecology in Filipino Males

  NSF · $157k · 2006–2009

• Doctoral Dissertation Research: Quantifying the Costs of Human Reproduction using the 'Epigenetic Clock'

  NSF · $31k · 2018–2021

• Doctoral Dissertation Research: Intergenerational effects of prenatal stress on physiological and psychosocial outcomes

  NSF · $29k · 2019–2021

• Fetal Growth as a Cue of Matrilineal Nutritional History in the Philippines

  NSF · $245k · 2008–2011

• Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Longitudinal Perspectives on Human Paternal Psychobiology in the Philippines

  NSF · $20k · 2010–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Thomas W. McDade

  Northwestern University

  130 shared

• Linda S. Adair

  University of North Carolina Health Care

  79 shared

• Judith B. Borja

  Foundation University

  74 shared

• Andrew Wooyoung Kim

  South African Medical Research Council

  46 shared

• Lee T. Gettler

  University of Notre Dame

  40 shared

• Sang Lee

  South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute

  36 shared

• Alan B. Feranil

  Scalabrini International Migration Network

  32 shared

• Michael S. Kobor

  University of British Columbia

  31 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Human Biology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  2001

• M.S., Human Biology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1998

• B.A., Human Biology

  University of California, San Diego

  1996

Awards & honors

• Elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences
• Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences