Thomas McDade

About

Thomas McDade is a biological anthropologist specializing in human population biology. His work is primarily concerned with the dynamic interrelationships among society, biology, and health over the life course, with an emphasis on life course approaches to stress and the human immune system. The development and application of minimally-invasive methods for integrating physiological measures into population-based research is also a major area of interest. Prior research in Samoa, and ongoing research in Bolivia and Ecuador, investigates how local cultural transitions associated with globalization affect human development and health, while research in the Philippines explores the long-term developmental consequences of early nutritional and microbial environments. He is currently applying conceptual and methodological tools from this work to US-based research on health disparities, with an emphasis on the potential contributions of stress and environments in infancy. Dr. McDade is the Director of the Laboratory for Human Biology Research, the Center on Social Disparities and Health (Cells to Society, C2S), and the Graduate Cluster in Society, Biology, and Health. His work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. He was a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2002. McDade is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and…

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Immunology
• Virology
• Clinical psychology
• Social psychology
• Veterinary medicine
• Genetics
• Biology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Comparison of IgG and neutralizing antibody responses after one or two doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in previously infected and uninfected individuals.

  EClinicalMedicine · 2021 · 113 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Recent reports have suggested that among individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, a single mRNA vaccine dose is sufficient to elicit high levels of immunity. METHODS: following vaccination of non-hospitalized participants by sero-status and acute virus diagnosis history. Participants were analysed before and after mRNA vaccination (BNT162b2/Pfizer or mRNA-1273/Moderna) in a community-based, home-collected, longitudinal serosurvey in the Chicago area (USA); none reported hospi…

  DOI

• High seroprevalence for SARS-CoV-2 among household members of essential workers detected using a dried blood spot assay

  PLoS ONE · 2020 · 99 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  OBJECTIVE: Serological testing is needed to investigate the extent of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from front-line essential workers to their household members. However, the requirement for serum/plasma limits serological testing to clinical settings where it is feasible to collect and process venous blood. To address this problem we developed a serological test for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies that requires only a single drop of finger stick capillary whole blood, collected in the home and dried on…

  DOI

• A biopsychosocial framework for understanding sexual and gender minority health: A call for action

  Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · 2021 · 60 citations

  DOI

• Cellular Immunity Is Critical for Assessing COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness in Immunocompromised Individuals

  Frontiers in Immunology · 2022 · 25 citations

  COVID-19 vaccine clinical development was conducted with unprecedented speed. Immunity measurements were concentrated on the antibody response which left significant gaps in our understanding how robust and long-lasting immune protection develops. Better understanding the cellular immune response will fill those gaps, especially in the elderly and immunocompromised populations which not only have the highest risk for severe infection, but also frequently have inadequate antibody responses. Altho…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dried Blood Spots to Assess Cardiovascular‐Kidney‐Metabolic Health

  Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025-03-13 · 8 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Dried blood spot sampling offers a scalable strategy to close diagnostic gaps and improve global surveillance for cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome. However, assay performance and the extent of validity vary widely between biomarkers used in cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic health assessment under different settings and have not been well described. To fill this gap, we conducted a systematic search of the literature and a narrative synthesis through April 2024 and included reports with la…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• RAPID: Next phase serological testing for SARS-CoV-2 for biocultural research

  NSF · $199k · 2020–2022

• PECASE: Acculturation, Health, and the Ecology of Immune Function: Integrated Research and Education in Human Population Biology

  NSF · $300k · 2002–2007

• Early environments, epigenetics, and inflammation during pregnancy

  NSF · $284k · 2014–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Christopher W. Kuzawa

  Northwestern University

  130 shared

• Victòria Reyes-García

  Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats

  95 shared

• Judith B. Borja

  Foundation University

  69 shared

• Linda S. Adair

  University of North Carolina Health Care

  68 shared

• William R. Leonard

  Northwestern University

  48 shared

• Susan Tanner

  46 shared

• Tomás Huanca

  Centro de Información y Desarrollo de la Mujer

  44 shared

• Michael S. Kobor

  University of British Columbia

  41 shared

Labs

• Biological Anthropology LaboratoryPI

Education

• Ph.D., Anthropology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1994

• M.A., Anthropology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1991

• B.A., Anthropology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1988

Awards & honors

• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers…
• Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Similar researchers at Northwestern University

• Sera Youngh-51
• Megan Bakerh-34