Robert A Waterland

Robert A Waterland is a Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, holding positions in Pediatrics-Nutrition and as a Member of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research focuses on environmental and nutritional influences on developmental epigenetics, particularly how early-life exposures shape disease susceptibility. He leads the Waterland Lab, which combines experimental epigenomics and computational biology to study DNA methylation, CoRSIVs, and obesity.

Education includes a PhD in Developmental Genetics from Cornell University (2000), a BS in Human Nutrition from Virginia Tech (1987), and postdoctoral training in Physics at Duke University. His work bridges basic science and epidemiology, aiming to understand epigenetic mechanisms linking nutrition to health outcomes.

Key research areas include systemic interindividual epigenetic variation (CoRSIVs), maternal nutrition's effects on offspring epigenetics, and the role of epigenetic dysregulation in obesity. Recent studies highlight links between epigenetic markers and neurodevelopmental/metabolic disorders, leveraging population-level data for translational insights.

Publications emphasize innovative methods for epigenetic analysis, such as identifying cell-type specific methylation signals and applying machine learning to schizophrenia biomarkers. Collaborations span global health, twin studies, and agricultural epigenetics.