The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University is deeply committed to pushing the frontiers of knowledge by facilitating innovative research on the childhood roots of disparities in health, learning, and behavior. To help realize that goal, the Center created the Interdisciplinary Research Seminar on Disparities (IRSD) to share cutting-edge science across disciplines and to serve as a catalyst for the generation of new research ideas and collaborative investigation among diverse Harvard faculty members from across the University.
With financial support from the Center, six members of the IRSD began work in 2008 on an integrated, multidisciplinary investigation of the long-term health consequences of early-life adversity. The principal investigators (two molecular biologists, two developmental psychologists, and two social epidemiologists) are currently conducting five related studies – two mouse and three human – to elucidate the biological and psychological effects of stress experienced early in life. The goals of this collaboration are to create new knowledge across disciplines; to inform the development of new, science-based strategies for ameliorating the impacts of adversity on young children; and to translate the findings in order to educate policymakers and civic leaders about the long-term health consequences of significant early-life adversity. 
