Like a vine, children need nurturing care and strong support structures to ensure their healthy growth and development to their full potential. Parents and caregivers are the gardeners that tend and nurture the vine so that it can grow and flourish. Policies and programs, from the national to community level, are the trellis that supports the vine to grow.
Our aim in the TRELLIS lab is to translate basic science into practical interventions that can benefit mothers and children worldwide. Specifically, we aim to apply findings from basic science on the effects of nutrition and other environmental factors on brain development to conduct research informing how policies and programs can best support parents and caregivers in their vital work of providing the nurturing care children need to thrive.
We seek to achieve this aim through several types of research studies, including: