OHSU, ELIZABETH ZDUNICH
David Barker, a renowned epidemiologist and doctor, died last month (August 26). He was 75. Barker was known for his proposal that many adult diseases, such as cardiovascular problems and diabetes, are rooted during fetal development and the period just after birth.
Barker received both an M.D. and a doctorate in his native England. As a young scientist, he studied the transmission mode of the pathogen Mycobacterium ulcerans in Uganda, according to an obituary in The Guardian. In the 1980s he came up with what would be called the “Barker theory,” hypothesizing that the beginnings of chronic disease appear early on in life. His seminal study on the topic, published in The Lancet in 1989, showed that low birth weight correlated with coronary hearth disease ...
