Marla B Sokolowski, a University Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto, is excited about being part of a discussion about human development at the upcoming Canadian Science Writers Association annual meeting, June 5 to 8 in Toronto.
“It’s a really good panel with a lot of really good communicators keen to make science understandable,” said Sokolowski, who will be joined on the June 6 panel by four other U of T researchers: Lynne Hasher of psychology, who researches cognition and aging; Kang Lee, who explores lying in young children and its moral implications; Jonathon McGuire, a pediatrician who looks at nutrition and child development; and Arjumand Siddiqui, a social epidemiologist who tries to understand the impact of social welfare policies on health and human development.
“Making science accessible is important for everyone,” said Sokolowski, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Genetics and Behavioural Neurology and academic director of U of T’s Fraser Mustard Institute of Human Development. “Science literacy and the ability to understand what constitutes evidence is important for navigating our world — for being good parents, looking after our health and the health of our loved ones, for our environment and for being citizens of Canada and the world.”
Her research, with its focus on the interplay of genes and the environment, offers insights for both parents and policy-makers. Sokolowski is renowned for the discovery of the foraging gene that is present in such diverse species as fruit flies, ants, honeybees, rats and humans.
The foraging gene influences whether an individual is predisposed to rove — eat and move on — or sit — eat and sit, gaining more fat. However, if the environment changes, that predisposition can also change.
“A rover will become a sitter if it grows up in a nutrition-deprived environment,” Sokolowski said. “Genes actually listen to the environment and respond to it by making more or less of a protein.”
Interestingly, some children — called dandelions — are less sensitive to their environment while others — called orchids — thrive only when the conditions are right.
“There are genetic variations for certain genes that can buffer you,” Sokolowski said. “The genetic variants you bring into a situation can help you.”
She and her colleagues are working to determine how to provide the optimal environment for all children to thrive, hardy or not. As they learn more, the resulting knowledge could drive social policy, perhaps offering more enrichment for children living in challenging environments, for example.
“The way we think about genes and the environment — whether as fixed or flexible — affects the way we think in society about many things,” Sokolowski said.
Marla Sokolowski takes part in CSWA’s Human Development panel at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, June 6.