Research Interests 

 

Early-life determinants of human health and reproduction, fetal programming and its biomarkers, biological aging, adverse childhood experiences, preconception health 

 

Research projects  

 

2022-now The effect of paternal adverse childhood experiences on the offspring’s brain development – potential mechanisms and cognitive consequences for the child. The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, University of Turku, Finland, Guest Researcher 

2022-now Trauma, resilience, health: Hormonal, immunological, and genetic biomarkers of stress response among three generations of Ukrainian refugees. P.I.: Grazyna Jasienska, Grant from the National Agency for Academic Exchange, executor  

2021-2022 Is female reproduction shaped by early-life stress level? Bekker Scholarship from the National Agency for Academic Exchange, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Guest Researcher  

2018-2022 Developmental programming and physical activity at adulthood in relation to levels of sex steroid hormones in women: implications for breast cancer prevention. Grant from National Science Centre, P.I.: Grazyna Jasienska, Post-doc 

2015-2017 Afast! Say it. Grant from National Centre for Research and Development, P.I. 

2014-2016 Biomarkers of fetal programming and female health and fertility, Grant from National Science Centre, P.I. 

2015 Hormonal levels and sexual selection; an innovative approach towards human sexual preferences, Grant from National Science Centre, P.I.: Urszula M. Marcinkowska, Research Team Member 

2011-2015 Fertility and aging and lifespan of women, Grant Ideas Plus from The Ministry of Science and Higher Education, P.I.: Grazyna Jasienska, Junior Researcher 

2011-2015 Parameters of reproductive history and aging and lifespan of women, Grant from National Science Centre, P.I.: Grazyna Jasienska, Junior Researcher 

2012 Impacts of Maternal Environment on Breast Milk composition, P.I.: Katie Hinde, Harvard University, assistant 

2010-2011 Life style, work and hormones, P.I.: Louis Calistro Alvarado, University of New Mexico, assistant 

2010 Food Allergies among citizens of Beskid Wyspowy Mountain Range, P.I.: Kathryn Clancy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, assistant 

2008-2010 HAPPIE – Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial Factors in Eastern Europe, P.I.: Andrzej Pajak, Jagiellonian University Medical College, assistant 

 

Publications  

 

Ciochoń A, Balwicki Ł, Klimek M, Danel DP, Apanasewicz A, Ziomkiewicz A, Galbarczyk A, Marcinkowska UM. 2025. Cigarette smoke exposure as a potential risk factor for sleep problems in pregnant women. Peer Community Journal 5, doi: 10.24072/pcjournal.621 

Słojewska K, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Mijas M, Tubek-Krokosz A , Krzych-Miłkowska K, Ścibor M, Jasienska G. 2025. Smaller birth size may be associated with lower physical activity in adult women. Scientific Reports 15 (1): 30652, doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-14620-w 

Obrochta WM, Klimek M, Bartecka P, Klaś K, Marcinkowska UM. 2025. Is the human face a biomarker of health? – a scoping review. PloS one, 20 (8) e0318138, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0318138 

Klimek M, Karlsson H, Karlsson L, Korja R, Nolvi S, Haikio T, Tuulari JJ, Kataja E-L. 2025. Paternal adverse childhood experiences and offspring’s attentional disengagement from faces at 8 months – results from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. PloS one, 20(7), e0326437, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326437 

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). 2024. General and abdominal adiposity and hypertension in eight world regions: a pooled analysis of 837 population-based studies with 7· 5 million participants. The Lancet, 404(10455), 851-863, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01405-3 

Żyrek J, Klimek M, Apanasewicz A, Ciochoń A, Danel DP, Marcinkowska UMM, Mijas M, Ziomkiewicz A, Galbarczyk A. 2024. Social support during pregnancy and the risk of postpartum depression in Polish women. A prospective study. 2024. Scientific Reports 14 (1), 6906, doi: doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-57477-1 

Słojewska K, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Tubek-Krokosz A, Krzych-Miłkowska K, Szklarczyk J, Mijas M, Ścibor M, Jasienska G. 2024. Higher number of steps is related to lower endogenous progesterone but not estradiol levels in women. PLOS ONE 19 (4), e0299580, doi: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299580 

Galbarczyk A, Marcinkowska UMM, Klimek M, Jasienska G. 2023. Extreme pubic hair removal as a potential risk factor for recurrent urinary tract infections in women. Scientific Reports,13;1: 119045, doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-46481-6 

Klimek M, Entringer S, Matras A, Blukacz M, Nenko I, Galbarczyk A, Jasienska G. 2023. Early-life adversities and later-life reproductive patterns in women with fully traced reproductive history. Scientific Reports, 8;13: 9328, doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-36226-w 

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). 2023. Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development. Nature 615, 874–883, doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-05772-8 

Klimek M, Marcinkowska UM, Galbarczyk A, Nenko I, Jasienska G. 2023. The age at first reproduction as a potential mediator between facial fluctuating asymmetry and reproductive success in women. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 181(2):166-172, doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24746 

Ciochoń A, Apanasewicz A, Danel D.P, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Ziomkiewicz A, Marcinkowska U.M. 2022. Antenatal classes in the context of prenatal anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9(9), 5073, doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095073 

Klimek M, Marcinkowska UM, Fedurek P, Kleisner K, Danel DP. 2022. Like father, like child? Paternal age at birth and offspring’s facial asymmetry and distinctiveness. Symmetry, 14(2), doi: 10.3390/sym14020344 

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). 2021. Worldwide trends in hypertension prevalence and progress in treatment and control from 1990 to 2019: a pooled analysis of 1201 population-representative studies with 104 million participants. The Lancet, 398: 957-980, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01330-1 

Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Blukacz M, Nenko I, Jabłońska M, Jasienska G. 2021. Inflammaging: blame the sons. Relationships between the number of sons and the level of inflammatory mediators among post-reproductive women. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 175: 656-664, doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24295 

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). 2021. Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight. eLife, 10: e60060, doi: 10.7554/eLife.60060 

Miłkowska K, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Zabłocka-Słowińska K, Jasienska G. 2021. Pathogen disgust, but not moral disgust, changes across the menstrual cycle. Evolution and Human Behavior, 42: 402-408, doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.03.002 

Klimek M, Galbarczyk A, Nenko I, Jasienska G. 2021. Biomarkers of fetal conditions: finger ridge-counts, facial fluctuating asymmetry, and digit ratio (2D:4D) – are they correlated in women? American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 174: 224-231, doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24164 

Miłkowska K, Nenko I, Klimek M, Galbarczyk A, Jasienska G. 2020. Season of birth and biomarkers of early-life environment. American Journal of Human Biology (in press), doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23532 

Marcinkowska UM, Ziomkiewicz A, Kleisner K, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Sancilio A, Jasienska G, Bribiescas RG. 2020. The hidden cost of beauty: oxidative stress and attractiveness in postmenopausal women. Scientific Reports, 10: 21970, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-76627-9 

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). 2020. Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries: Pooled analysis of 2,182 population-based studies with 65 million participants. The Lancet, 396: 1511-1524, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31859-6 

Fischer Pedersen JK, Klimek M, Galbarczyk A, Nenko I, Sobocki J, Christensen DL, Jasienska G. 2020. Digit ratio (2D:4D) is not related to cardiovascular diseases or their risk factors in menopausal women. American Journal of Human Biology, e23505, doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23505 

Rogers MP, Lee KMN, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Klein LD, Zabłocka-Słowińska K, Jasienska G, Clancy KBH. 2020. Declining ages at menarche in an agrarian rural region of Poland. American Journal of Human Biology, e23362, doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23362 

Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Nenko I, Jasienska G. 2019. Sons may be bad for maternal health at older age. New evidence for costs of reproduction in humans. The Journals of Gerontology Series A Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences: gly190, doi: 10.1093/gerona/gly190 

Kuna B, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Nenko I, Jasienska G. 2018. Age difference between parents influences parity and number of sons. American Journal of Human Biology: e23095, doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23095 

Richards G, Klimek M, Jasienska G, Marcinkowska U.M. 2018. Digit ratio (2D:4D) and circulating testosterone, oestradiol, and progesterone levels across the menstrual cycle. Early Human Development 117: 68-73, doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2017.12.006 

Marcinkowska U.M, Little A.C, Galbarczyk A, Nenko I, Klimek M, Jasienska G. 2017. Costs of reproduction are reflected in women’s faces: post-menopausal women with fewer children are perceived as more attractive, healthier and younger than women with more children. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 2017: 1–5, doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23362 

Klimek M, Macinkowska U.M, Jasienska G. 2017. Value of digit ratio 2D:4D, a biomarker of prenatal hormone exposure, is stable across the menstrual cycle. Early Human Development 110: 21-24, doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2017.04.014 

Klimek M, Galbarczyk A, Nenko I, Jasienska G. 2016. Women with more feminine digit ratio (2D:4D) have higher reproductive success. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 160: 549–55, doi: 10.1002/ajpa.22989 

Ziomkiewicz A, Sancilio A, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Jasienska G, Bribiescas R. 2016. Evidence for the cost of reproduction in humans revealed by associations between lifetime reproductive effort and oxidative stress in postmenopausal women. PLOS ONE e0145753, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145753 * among top 10% most cited PLOS ONE papers published in 2016 

Alvarado LC, Muller M, Thompson ME, Klimek M, Nenko I, Jasienska G. 2015. The Paternal Provisioning Hypothesis: Effects of Workload and Testosterone Production on Men’s Musculature. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 158: 19-35, doi: 10.1002/ajpa.22771 

Klimek M, Galbarczyk A, Colleran H, Thune I, Ellison PT, Ziomkiewicz A, Jasienska G. 2015. Digit ratio (2D:4D) does not correlate with daily 17β–estradiol and progesterone concentrations in healthy women of reproductive age. American Journal of Human Biology 27: 667–673, doi: 10.1002/ajhb.22717 

Puskarczyk K, Galbarczyk A, Klimek M, Nenko I, Odrzywołek L, Jasienska G. 2015. Being born after your brother is not a disadvantage: Reproductive success does not depend on the sex of the preceding sibling. American Journal of Human Biology 27: 731-733, doi: 10.1002/ajhb.22710 

Klimek M, Galbarczyk A, Nenko I, Alvarado LC, Jasienska G. 2014. Digit ratio (2D:4D) as an indicator of body size, testosterone concentration and number of children in human males. Annals of Human Biology 41: 518-523, doi: 10.3109/03014460.2014.902993 

 

Conference presentations  

Klimek, H. Karlsson, L. Karlsson, L. Perasto, E.I.K. Vitikainen, N. Hashempour, M. Lukkarinen, R.J. Lund, J.J. Tuulari, T. Paunio, E-L. Kataja. Parental adverse childhood experiences and leukocyte telomere length in offspring at birth and at 5-years old – results from The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease World Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina (poster) 2025

Klimek, I. Nenko, A. Galbarczyk, G. Jasienska. Adverse childhood experiences and later-life cellular, immunological, cognitive, and reproductive aging in women. ISPNE Annual Conference, New Orleans, USA, 2025 (poster)

Klimek, H. Karlsson, L. Karlsson, R. Korja, S. Nolvi, T. Häikiö, J.J. Tuulari, E.L. Kataja. Paternal adverse childhood experiences and offspring’s attentional disengagement from faces at 8 months – results from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. 2nd FinnBrain International Congress on Prenatal and Early Life Stress, Turku, Finland, 2023 (poster)

M. Klimek, S. Entringer, A. Matras, M. Blukacz, I. Nenko, A. Galbarczyk, K. Słojewska, K. Krzych-Miłkowska, G. Jasienska. Growing up too fast? Adverse childhood experiences, later-life reproduction and sex hormones in women. Annual meeting of the Human Biology Association, Reno, Nevada (USA), 2023 (talk)

Klimek, S. Entringer, A. Matras, M. Blukacz, I. Nenko, A. Galbarczyk, G. Jasienska. Early-life adversities and later-life reproduction in women with fully traced reproductive history. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease World Congress, Vancouver, Canada 2022 (poster)

Klimek. The early-life origins of reproduction in women. Medical Psychology Kolloquium, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, 2021 (invited talk)

Klimek, A. Apanasewicz-Grzegorczyk, A. Ciochoń, D. P. Danel, A. Galbarczyk, U.M. Marcinkowska, M. Mijas, A. Ziomkiewicz. Pandemic mindfulness: is there a difference in pregnancy and birth outcomes between women practicing relaxation techniques or not? Pandemic Babies? The Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Fertility and Family Dynamics conference (virtual), Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Berlin, Germany 2021 (poster)

Klimek, U.M. Marcinkowska, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Facial fluctuating asymmetry and reproductive success – a mediating role of age at first reproduction. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association Annual Meeting (digital), Krakow, Poland, 2021 (poster)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Fetal programming of inflammaging in women. DOHaD Australia and New Zealand Digital Trainee Conference, 2020 (poster) 

Klimek. Is there a lifelong connection between early-life stress, telomere length and reproductive effort among women? Diversity in Telomere Dynamic Workshop, University of Edinburgh, UK, 2019 (talk)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Dermatoglyphics, an indicator of early-life environment, predicts fertility in women. The Polish Society for Human and Evolution Studies, 6th International Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 2019 (poster)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Facial fluctuating asymmetry: is it related to higher risk of cardiovascular diseases? International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health Conference, Zurich, Switzerland, 2019 (poster)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Being in utero during the Second World War is related to biomarkers of fetal programming. Annual Meeting of DOHaD Society of Australia and New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, 2018 (symposium talk)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Dermatoglyphic patterns are predictors of reproductive success in women. The 87th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Austin, USA, 2018 (talk)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Finger dermatoglyphics and reproductive success in women. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease World Congress, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2017 (poster)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Is facial fluctuating asymmetry, a biomarker of developmental stability, related to risk of cardiovascular diseases? Annual Meeting of DOHaD Society of Australia and New Zealand, Canberra, Australia, 2017 (talk)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Women with higher reproductive costs have more asymmetric faces. The Polish Society for Human and Evolution Studies, 3rd International Conference, Toruń, Poland, 2016 (poster)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Reproductive costs and facial fluctuating asymmetry in postmenopausal women. Annual Meeting of DOHaD Society of Australia and New Zealand, Adelaide, Australia, 2016 (oral-poster)

Klimek, Urszula M. Marcinkowska, G. Jasienska. Value of 2D:4D is stable across the menstrual cycle. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association Annual Meeting, London, United Kingdom, 2016 (poster)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Digit ratio (2D:4D), parameters of reproductive history and sex hormones in a rural population. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease World Congress, Cape Town, South Africa, 2015 (oral-poster)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, A. Ziomkiewicz, G. Jasienska. 2D:4D digit ratio, sex hormones and reproductive history of women. The Polish Society for Human and Evolution Studies, 2nd International Conference, Poznań, Poland, 2015 (talk)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, H. Colleran, I. Thune, PT. Ellison, A. Ziomkiewicz, G. Jasienska. Prenatal exposure to sex hormones in relation to sex hormones in women of reproductive age. The 84th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, St. Louis, USA, 2015 (talk)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Women with more feminine digit ratio have larger number of children and give birth to the last child at later age. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association Annual Meeting, Helsinki, Finland, 2015 (poster)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, LC. Alvarado, G. Jasienska. More masculine 2D:4D predicts better biological condition, higher testosterone levels and higher number of children in men. The 83rd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Calgary, Canada, 2014 (talk)

Klimek, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Boys born after a brother are smaller at birth. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association Annual Meeting, Amsterdam, Holland, 2013 (poster)

Walas, A. Galbarczyk, I. Nenko, G. Jasienska. Digit ratio (2D:4D) as an indicator of biological condition among men from a Polish rural population, The 23rd Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Montpellier, France, 2011 (poster)

 

Trainings  

 

2025 PROM scholarship funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, conducted at KU Leuven, Belgium, under the supervision of prof. Marlou de Kroon 

2024 European Educational Programme in Epidemiology Summer School, Early-Life Epidemiology Course, Florence, Italy  

2023 Non-coding genome, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany 

2023 Telomere length and mitochondrial DNA analyses laboratory training, Hasselt University, Belgium 

2023, 2022 Erasmus+ program hosted by Professor Hasse Karlsson, University of Turku, Finland 

2021 Erasmus+ program hosted by Professor Tim Nawrot and Dr. Dries S. Martens, Hasselt University, Belgium 

2021 Virtual Placental Biology Course, Centre for Trophoblast Research, Cambridge University, UK 

2020 Causal Mediation Analysis Training: Methods and Applications Using Health Data, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, New York City, USA (online event)  

2019 Diversity in Telomere Dynamic Workshop, University of Edinburgh, UK 

2019 Epigenetic Boot Camp: Planning and Analyzing DNA Methylation Studies, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, New York City, USA 

2019 Erasmus+ program hosted by Professor Sonja Entringer, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin 

2018 “How to manage research projects?” Training organized by Association for Ph.D. Candidates and Ph.D. Career Development PolDoc 

2018 Erasmus+ program hosted by Professor Paul G. Sheils, Glasgow Ageing Research Network, University of Glasgow 

2017 Erasmus+ program hosted by Professor Jonathan CK Wells, Institute of Child Health, University College London 

2015 Research Team Leader, training organized by Foundation for Polish Science, Warsaw, Poland 

2014 Workshops – Evolutionary Aspects of Child Development and Health, SFU University, Vancouver, Canada 

2009 Polish Ministry of Health (professional practice)  

 

Awards/funding  

 

2025 National Academy of Academic Exchange PROM funding – visit to KU Leuven, Belgium  

2024 Jagiellonian University Priority Resarch Area funding within “Support for the development of hard skills – foreign internships” program – visit to Turku University, Finland 

2021 Bekker Scholarship funded by the National Agency for Academic Exchange 

2020 Columbia Mailman School of Public Health (USA) Scholarship for participation in Causal Mediation Analysis Training: Methods and Applications Using Health Data 

2019 Columbia Mailman School of Public Health (USA) Scholarship for participation in Epigenetics Boot Camp: Planning and Analyzing DNA Methylation Studies 

2018 DOHaD ANZ Society Award for the top presentation of Early Career Researchers, Sydney, Australia 

2017 DOHaD ANZ Society Prize for translational research initiatives, Canberra, Australia 

2014-2015 Scholarship for the best Ph.D. Students at Jagiellonian University Medical College from The Ministry of Science and Higher Education 

2010 Students’ Nobel Prize for the best student at Jagiellonian University Medical College 

2008-2009 Sapere Auso Scholarship for the best students in Lesser Poland Region 

 

Membership in Scientific Societies 

 

World DOHaD Society – member 

European DOHaD Society – Excutive council member 

 

 

www.evoecogroup.wordpress.com 

www.magdalenaklimek.com