Brooke's research aims to reduce the negative impacts of adversity and improve health equity through examining the biological, psychosocial, and developmental factors that contribute to stress-related psychopathology. Brooke takes an interdisciplinary approach to understand who, how, and when 

experiences of early life trauma and stress “get under the skin” to confer risk.

 

In the context of this work, Brooke has studied an array of biological factors spanning polygenic risk, epigenetic aging, DNA methylation, and gut microbiome composition to 1) quantify biological predisposition to psychopathology (i.e., biomarkers of risk) and 2) better understand the biological embedding of adversity (i.e., mechanisms of risk), across the lifespan and into the next generation.

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Most recently, Brooke has also approached these aims through the lens of resilience rather than risk alone. She is currently working on several projects related to understanding how positive childhood experiences, such as parental engagement and peer support, become biologically embedded and protect against adversity.