The Emory University's Center for Children's Health, the Environment, Microbiome, and Metabolomics Center (C- CHEM2) seeks to conduct research on how environmental exposures influence the microbiome of infants and children and the subsequent influence of changes in the microbiome on neurodevelopment. The establishment of a Center focused on the microbiome is significant given that the microbiome is established during the first years of life when development is highly sensitive to the effects of environmental exposures. The investigators' interdisciplinary Center will conduct studies on exposures in an urban environment, the microbiome of pregnant women and their infants, and associated neurocognitive health outcomes. The work of the Center is based on a longitudinal cohort of 800 pregnant African American women who are currently being followed through delivery and designed to examine maternal prenatal stress and its association with the infant microbiome. C-CHEM2 will incorporate a robust assessment of the exposures of the pregnant mother and infant, leveraging substantial resources available from Emory's NIEHS-funded HERCULES Center. The investigators hypothesize that environmental exposure, the microbiome, HPA axis, and immune system together influence neurocognitive and socioemotional development. Type of delivery, genetics, type of feeding, postnatal stress, and maternal-infant interaction are posited as moderators of this intergenerational risk process. Project 1 will focus on the measurement of environmental exposures of the pregnant women and their infants and specifically the association of internal exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the home environment and their associations with birth outcome. Project 2 will collect infant microbiome, inflammatory marker, and developmental data to examine the association between the prenatal exposures, the infant gut-brain axis, and cognitive/behavioral functioning in the first 18 months of life. Project 3 will use high-resolution metabolomics of the pre- and postnatal samples to test for complex interactions (e.g., exposure x metabolome, microbiome x metabolome, metabolome x HPA axis, immune, neurocognitive and socioemotional measures) that contribute to neurocognitive and socioemotional outcomes. The Community Outreach and Translation Core of C-CHEM2 builds on substantial community engagement already in place in their NIEHS-funded HERCULES Center and provides for bi-directional exchange between African American families in Atlanta and scientists. The investigators' ultimate goal is to assess the influence of the environmental exposures of pregnant women on their microbiome and the subsequent impact of the mother's microbiome on neurodevelopment of the fetus and infant. Achieving this goal would afford a more complete understanding of these effects and consequent ability to translate research strategies to reduce environmental exposures and reduce the prevalence of environmentally-related diseases mitigated by the microbiome.
The Center for Children's Health, the Environment, Microbiome and Metabolomics is an interdisciplinary collaboration that aims to examine the complex interplay between exposure to environmental toxicants, the microbiome, and fetal/infant health in a community of women in metropolitan Atlanta.
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