Understanding nature and nurture: Statistical and AI innovations uncover how genes and environment shape human health.

What makes us who we are? Is it our DNA, passed down through generations, or the environment that shapes our lives? This question—how nature and nurture combine to influence health and behavior—has long captured my curiosity. As I grew up in a multigenerational household, I was struck by the story of my two uncles, identical twins who were genetically indistinguishable but who lived out very different health journeys. One developed severe cardiovascular disease by his early forties; the other stayed healthy into his sixties. What separated them was not biology—it was environment. One stayed in our rural hometown and worked long hours with limited health care. The other moved to a city with community health programs and social support. As I witnessed this divergence despite identical DNA, I began to ask, How does the environment reshape genetic predisposition? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]