Jens Heumann

LIFE Fellow since 2022, University of Zurich

I am a PhD student in Sociology and a doctoral research fellow in Mike Shanahan's team Social Genomics at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development. I study the causal effects of early life environment and events on mental and physical health across the life course within an interdisciplinary setting. Among other things, I use experimental and genetic data from the Zurich Brain and Immune Gene Study (ZGIG).
I graduated with a Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Bern. Prior to that, I completed a bachelor's degree in Social Work at ZHAW Zurich and worked for many years as a youth social worker. In my master's thesis, I investigated the impact of liberalization on various poverty indicators of 16 countries in the Global South using a counterfactual framework. My research interests include analytical and computational sociology, social genomics, experiments and quality of life.

Dissertation project:

Biopsychosocial effects of adolescent peer victimization on later health

Selected Publications

Heumann, J., Cole, S. W., Eisner, M., Ribeaud, D., Grünblatt, E., & Shanahan, M. J. (2025). Peer victimization in adolescence alters gene expression and cytokine profiles during transition to adulthood. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2025.101025

Zuber, S., Bechtiger, L., Bodelet, J. S., Golin, M., Heumann, J., Kim, J. H., Klee, M., Mur, J., Noll, J., Voll, S., O’Keefe, P., Steinhoff, A., Zölitz, U., Muniz-Terrera, G., Shanahan, L., Shanahan, M. J., & Hofer, S. M. (2023). An integrative approach for the analysis of risk and health across the life course: challenges, innovations, and opportunities for life course research. Discover Social Science and Health, 3, Article 14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44155-023-00044-2