Madison BondyCohort 2016

My research seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the effects of stress and aging on the body, particularly through the lens of telomere length. Telomere length reflects cell replication and repair capacity, and is known to be reduced by psychological stress. Populations in Nepal experience multiple stressors from both social-structural and natural sources, including effects of caste and gender norms, and residual impacts of both the 2015 Gorkha earthquake and the Maoist insurgency. My research focuses on these combined exposures to chronic stress and trauma in order to understand their impact on aging in a low and middle income (LMIC) population where such exposures are widespread and/or normative.