Welcome to the Lin Lab in the Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We conduct evidence-based and policy-relevant research to advance programs that promote nutrition and environmental justice in low-resource settings. Using a Developmental Origins of Health and Disease framework, our research focuses on the role of the exposome in the biological embedding of childhood adversity. Major areas of our research include early childhood nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions, environmental enteric dysfunction, infectious diseases, stress physiology, immune function, telomere biology, child growth and development, and gender-based violence. We use large-scale impact evaluations and other empirical approaches to understand biological pathways leading to healthy trajectories across the life course.
Land Acknowledgement
The land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma. Thank you to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman and the Amah Mutsun Relearning Program at the UCSC Arboretum for their labor and guidance on this land acknowledgement.
Lin Lab 