Biosocial Team

Dr. Laurel Raffington’s research spans the fields of developmental psychology, genomics, and public health. Her research seeks to understand how systems of social inequality and genetically-influenced differences between people combine to shape differential outcomes of education, health, and well-being across the lifespan and across generations. Laurel has two kids and wants to help make the scientific community more inclusive to scholars from commonly underrepresented groups.

Dr. Yayouk Willems is a developmental psychologist and behavior geneticist. Her projects explore how genetic propensities affect self-control, substance use, and health within the constraints imposed by socially-stratified environments. Yayouk is a multidisciplinary thinker who aims to make science more actionable and comprehensive for policy makers and the general public.

Dr. Qiao Wu is a gerontologist and epidemiologist specializing in biological aging. His research leverages multi-omic biomarkers to measure biological aging and assess socio-environmental exposures, with the goal of understanding how social, behavioral, and environmental factors across the life course become biologically embedded to influence health trajectories and aging outcomes. Committed to multidisciplinary and translational science, Dr. Wu’s work bridges population research, molecular epidemiology, and public health. His teaching experience covers global health and aging, quantitative methods, and applied economics.

Dr. Jessica Sperber Knott completed her PhD in Developmental Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. Broadly, her research examines the biological embedding of social inequality during childhood, with a particular focus on epigenetic processes. Her work seeks to understand the social determinants of psychological well-being and identify mechanisms for improving the trajectories of children experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage.

Dr Qinya Feng is a political scientist working at the intersection of political psychology and social science genetics. Her doctoral research applied genetically informed methods to questions of socio-political trust and attitudes towards immigration, drawing primarily on Swedish twin and register data. Her postdoctoral work examines early-life migration and health, as well as the social and ethical implications of genomic research and genetic biomarker applications, with attention to psychological processes related to uncertainty and complexity. More broadly, Qinya is interested in how multidisciplinary approaches can shed light on the dynamics of social differences in contemporary societies amid sociopolitical and technological change.

Deniz Fraemke is a biosocial researcher whose work spans behavioral genetics, epigenetics, and the social sciences. He studies how cognitive abilities and educational attainment develop from childhood into adulthood, and how socioeconomic and institutional contexts condition these developmental pathways. Empirically, he combines polygenic indices and epigenetic clocks with longitudinal data from German and international panel and twin cohorts, with a particular interest in what genomic measures can — and cannot — tell us about human development. In his remaining time, Deniz sails across the globe.

Nadia Harerimana is a Marie Curie Predoctoral Fellow specializing in genetic and geographic variation. Her research examines how demographic processes shape population genetic structure and influence socio-economic outcomes. She also addresses the population and ethical implications of genomic technologies. Nadia is engaged in science outreach through art and storytelling, shaping global conversations on genetics, ethics, and public health equity.

Muna Aikins’ academic background is in social science and human rights. Her doctoral research examines how experiences in childhood and adolescence tied to racism get under the skin to influence mental and physical health inequalities across the life span. Her research and work are based in Black communities’ activism and movements.