Dr. Josh Snodgrass -- Research Interests

My research focuses on human health and adaptation and sits at the intersection of human physiology, evolutionary biology, nutritional sciences, epidemiology, and the behavioral sciences. My research focuses on four main topics: 1) Human adaptation to environmental stressors such as extreme cold; 2) The influence of economic and cultural change on health, especially cardiovascular disease and diabetes; 3) Human/primate energetics and the evolution of the human diet; 4) The role of chronic psychosocial stress in shaping health and disease.

I am part of several large collaborative research teams and am involved in field research projects in northeastern Siberia (Indigenous Siberian Health and Adaptation Project), the Amazon region of Ecuador (The Shuar Health and Life History Project), and several locations within Oregon. Since 2005, I've also been involved with the World Health Organization's multi-country Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), a longitudinal study of health and well-being in older adults that focuses on nationally representative samples in six countries (China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa).

I also direct a human biology research laboratory that focuses on the development and application of minimally invasive techniques (e.g., dried blood spots and saliva) for assessing health and physiology in population-based research.

Ongoing Research Projects

Metabolic adaptation and health change among indigenous Siberians
Since 2001, I have conducted research in northeastern Siberia as part of a collaborative research project that
includes scientists from Russia and the United States. The project has two major research lines. The first
examines adaptation to the circumpolar environment, with a focus on evaluating evidence for metabolic
adaptation to cold stress among indigenous Siberians. In short, this research has tested the hypothesis that
human groups native to the cold have elevated resting metabolic rates as a result of chronic cold stress. Our
findings to date have supported this conclusion and we continue to do research along these lines.

Second, our research has focused on investigating the health effects of economic and social changes on indigenous Siberians in the post-Soviet period, with an emphasis on cardiovascular disease and diabetes. We are investigating the factors, such as dietary change, altered patterns of physical activity, and levels of chronic psychological stress, that may contribute to the increased burden of stroke and heart disease that has emerged in the past decade. Click here for the Siberia project website.

This research is currently funded by NSF (Office of Polar Programs), the University of Oregon, Northwestern University,
and the FSRI Institute of Health (Yakutsk, Russia). In the past, we have received funding from Sigma Xi, the Leakey Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Yakut Science Center (Yakutsk, Russia).




                                             
Project Website
http://www.bonesandbehavior.org/siberia.html

Past and Present Collaborators
Bill Leonard, Northwestern University
Michael Crawford, University of Kansas
Larissa Tarskaia-Nichols, Russian Academy of Sciences and University of Kansas
Mark Sorensen, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Sharon Williams, Purdue University

Scientists from the Yakut Scientific Center (Drs. Tomsky, Egorova, Maharova, Matveeva, Pinigina, Halyev, and
Romanova) and the Sakha Institute of Health (Drs. Krivoshapkin, Klimova, Fedorova, and Baltakhinova)

Graduate Student Collaborators
Tara Cepon, University of Oregon
Melissa Liebert, University of Oregon

Selected Publications
Snodgrass JJ, Leonard WR, Tarskaia LA, Klimova TM, Fedorova VI, Baltakhinova ME, Krivoshapkin VG. 2011. Metabolic adaptation in the Yakut (Sakha). Yakut Medical Journal 2(34): 11-14 (in Russian).

Cepon TJ, Snodgrass JJ, Leonard WR, Tarskaia LA, Klimova TM, Fedorova VI, Baltakhinova ME, Krivoshapkin VG. 2011. Circumpolar adaptation, social change, and the development of autoimmune thyroid disorders among the Yakut (Sakha) of Siberia. Am J Hum Biol 23: 703-709. (link to article)

Snodgrass JJ, Leonard WR, Tarskaia LA, et al. 2010. Impaired fasting glucose and the metabolic syndrome among an indigenous Siberian population. Int J Circumpol Health 69: 87-98.

Snodgrass JJ, Leonard WR, Sorensen MV, et al. 2008. The influence of basal metabolic rate on blood pressure
among indigenous Siberians. Am J Phys Anthropol 137: 145-155.

Snodgrass JJ, Sorensen MV, Tarskaia LA, Leonard WR. 2007. Adaptive dimensions of health research among
indigenous Siberians. Am J Hum Biol 19: 165-180.

Snodgrass JJ, Leonard WR, Tarskaia LA, et al. 2005. Basal metabolic rate in the Yakut (Sakha) of Siberia.
Am J Hum Biol 17: 155-172.


Shuar Health and Life History Project
The Shuar Health and Life History Project is a collaborative research project that I co-direct with Larry Sugiyama that
is an extension of the Shuar Life History Project. The goal of the Shuar Health and Life History Project is threefold.
First, we are investigating the effects of market integration on Shuar health. The project focuses on the effects of
cultural and economic change on growth and nutritional status among Shuar kids, as well as the changing pattern
of chronic disease prevalence (e.g., cardiovascular, metabolic, and skeletal health) among Shuar adults. Second, we
are using a life history perspective to better understand the trade-offs between different branches of immune
function in Shuar kids, and to use this information to better understand how energy is allocated to competing
priorities such as maintenance, growth, and reproduction. Finally, we seek to provide health information to participants
and community partners in order to assist in targeting prevention and treatment efforts. Research is centered in the Morona-Santiago region of Ecuador.

This research has been funded by NSF (Physical Anthropology), the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Leakey Foundation,
and the University of Oregon. In the past, the project has received funding from NIH (via the UC Santa Barbara Center
for Evolutionary Psychology), the Sasakawa Fund, and the Evonuk Foundation.




Project Website
http://www.bonesandbehavior.org/shuar/

Collaborators
Larry Sugiyama, University of Oregon
Aaron Blackwell, University of California, Santa Barbara
Washington Tiwi, Federacíon Interprovincial de Centros Shuar
Jose Pozo, Ministerio de Salud Pública del Ecuador

Graduate Student Collaborators
Tara Cepon, University of Oregon
Melissa Liebert, University of Oregon
Felicia Madimenos, University of Oregon
Julia Ridgeway-Diaz, University of Oregon
Terry Rueckert, University of Oregon
Heather Shattuck-Faegre, Harvard University
Erica Squires (formerly Midttveit), University of Oregon

Selected Project Publications
Madimenos FC, Snodgrass JJ, Blackwell AD, Liebert MA, Sugiyama LS. 2011. Physical activity in an indigenous Ecuadorian forager-horticulturalist population as measured using accelerometry. Am J Hum Biol 23: 488-497. (link to article)

Blackwell AD, Gurven MD, Sugiyama LS, Madimenos FC, Liebert MA, Martin MA, Kaplan HS, Snodgrass JJ. 2011. Evidence for a peak shift in a humoral response to helminths: Age profiles of IgE in the Shuar of Ecuador, the Tsimane of Bolivia, and the U.S. NHANES. PLoS Neglect Trop D.

Madimenos FC, Snodgrass JJ, Blackwell AD, Liebert MA, Cepon TJ, Sugiyama LS. 2011. Normative calcaneal quantitative ultrasound data for the indigenous Shuar and non-Shuar Colonos of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Arch Osteoporosis 6: 39-49. (link to article)

Blackwell AD, Snodgrass JJ, Madimenos FC, Sugiyama LS. 2010. Life history, immune function, and intestinal helminths: Trade-offs among immunoglobulin E, C-reactive protein, and growth in an Amazonian population. Am J Hum Biol 22: 836-848. (cover photo)

Blackwell AD et al. 2008. Growth and market integration in Amazonia: A comparison of growth indicators between
Shuar, Shiwiar, and nonindigenous school children. Am J Hum Biol 21: 161-171.


Stress, discrimination, and health among Latin American immigrants in Oregon
I am also part of a collaborative research project that uses biomarkers of stress to examine the effects of
discrimination on health among Latin American immigrants in Oregon. The project is a collaborative effort
with the Latino Research Team at the Oregon Social Learning Center and the Farmworker Housing
Development Corporation. The project was initiated in 2007 and, with financial support from NIH, Oregon Social
Learning Center and the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies at the University of Oregon, we
conducted three waves of pilot data collection. We are currently analyzing samples from the project in my lab
and are in the early stages of publication of the results of the study. We are also writing grants to continue
and expand the research.


Main Collaborators
Heather McClure, Oregon Social Learning Center
Charles Martinez, Jr., Oregon Social Learning Center
Mark Eddy, Oregon Social Learning Center
Roberto Jimenez, Farmworker Housing Development Corporation
Laura Isiordia, Farmworker Housing Development Corporation

Student Collaborators
Sara Epstein (undergraduate student), University of Oregon
Felicia Madimenos (former graduate student), University of Oregon
Erica Squires (formerly Midttveit; graduate student), University of Oregon

Selected Publications
McClure et al. 2010. Discrimination-related stress, blood pressure, and immune function among Latin American immigrants in Oregon. J Biosocial Sci 42: 433-461.

McClure et al. 2010. Discrimination, psychosocial stress, and health among Latin American immigrants in Oregon.
Am J Hum Biol 22: 421-423.


Development of biomarkers for assessing health and physiology in population-based research
My research also involves the development and validation of new, minimally invasive techniques for assessing
health and physiology in population-based research. During my NIA-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship I worked
closely with Thom McDade and Sharon Williams to develop new techniques, using ELISA and Luminex platforms,
that allow researchers to measure different aspects of health and physiology. I have continued to collaborate
with Sharon Williams as part of the World Health Organization's SAGE (Study of Adult Health and Global Ageing)
project to train WHO participating scientists, coordinate biomarker collection, and standardize the laboratory
protocols for five countries (China, Russia, South Africa, Ghana, and India) participating in the study.



Main Collaborators
Thom McDade, Northwestern University
Sharon Williams, Purdue University

Graduate Student Collaborators
Erica Squires (formerly Midttveit), University of Oregon

Selected Publications
McDade TW, Williams SR, Snodgrass JJ. 2007. What a drop can do: Dried blood spots as a minimally-invasive
method for integrating biomarkers in population-based research. Demography 44: 899-925.

Snodgrass JJ, Williams SR, McDade. 2006. Measurement of human pituitary hormones in dried blood spots by
multiplex immunoassay. Am J Phys Anthropol (Suppl) 42: 168.

Snodgrass JJ. 2006. Viability of capillary blood collection for use in population-based health research. Paper
presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Los Angeles, CA.


Human/primate energetics and the evolution of the human diet
Since 1998, I have collaborated with Bill Leonard and Marcia Robertson on research that addresses the evolution
of the human diet. Some of the issues we have addressed in this research include the evolution of early hominid
diets, brain evolution in the genus Homo, early primate ecology and energetics, and Neandertal energetics. Click
here for a recent article from Science on the evolution of the human diet, which discusses some of my research. Click
here for a recent article in Nature, from an issue focused on the emerging field of nutrigenomics, that includes some quotes from me on the evolution of the human diet.


Selected Publications
Snodgrass JJ. 2012. Human energetics. In: Stinson et al. (eds.) Human Biology: An Evolutionary and Biocultural Approach (2nd Edition). New York: Wiley, in press.

Muchlinski MN, Snodgrass JJ, and Terranova CJ. 2012. Muscle mass scaling in primates: An energetic and ecological perspective. Am J Primatol, in press.

Leonard WR, Robertson ML, Snodgrass JJ. 2010. What did humans evolve to eat? Metabolic implications of major trends in hominid evolution. In: Moffat and Prowse (eds.) Human Diet and Nutrition in Biocultural Perspective: Past Meets Present. New York: Berghahn Books.

Snodgrass JJ, Leonard WR, Robertson ML. 2009. The energetics of encephalization in early hominids. In: JJ Hublin
& M Richards (eds.) Evolution of Hominid Diets: Integrating Approaches to the Study of Palaeolithic
Subsistence. Dordrecht, Springer.

Snodgrass JJ, Leonard WR. 2009. Neandertal energetics revisited: Insights into population dynamics and life
history evolution. PaleoAnthropology 2009: 220-237.
   
Snodgrass JJ, Leonard WR, Robertson ML. 2007. Primate bioenergetics: An evolutionary perspective. In: M Ravosa
& M Dagosto (eds.) Primate Origins: Adaptations and Evolution. New York, Springer, pp. 703-737.

Leonard WR, Snodgrass JJ, Robertson ML. 2007. Effects of brain evolution on human nutrition and metabolism.
Annu Rev Nutr 27: 311-327.

Leonard WR, Robertson ML, Snodgrass JJ, Kuzawa CW. 2003. Metabolic correlates of hominid brain expansion.
Comp Biochem Physiol 136A: 5-15.