Since its inception in 1999, the CHAMACOS study is one of the longest running cohort studies examining the impact of early life environmental exposures on neurodevelopment, growth, and respiratory disease and the only one focused on low-income, Latino children in a farmworker population. We have collected extensive health, exposure, demographic, neighborhood, and regional data, as well as biological (e.g. blood, urine, breastmilk, hair, saliva, deciduous teeth) and environmental (e.g. dust, allergens) samples at multiple visits and have created a large biorepository with more than 300,000 samples stored for future use. We have used banked specimens and archived data to demonstrate relationships of pre- and postnatal exposures to pesticides, flame retardants, and other chemicals with poorer neurodevelopment, reduced lung function, obesity, and other outcomes. We have shown that environmental exposures affect a multitude of molecular mechanisms that influence health, such as PON1 enzymatic activity, adipokine and isoprostane levels, DNA methylation and miRNA expression. The CHAMACOS resources have supported multiple NIH, EPA, and non- federal grants and trainees, including collaborations with other institutions. With well over 150 publications, CHAMACOS is a successful and well-established environmental epidemiology cohort. The main goals of the parent grant (R24ES028529) were to maintain and improve the infrastructure required for management of this vast trove of data, the laboratory facilities to ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands of samples, and the effort to keep families engaged and participating in this long-running study. However, the School of Public Health (SPH) Biorepository and Children?s Environmental Health Laboratory, which house the biological and environmental specimens has experienced an unexpected shortfall of funding this year. The purpose of this administrative supplement is to provide additional critical funding to the SPH Biorepository. Supplement funds will be used to secure the position of early stage investigator, Dr. Karen Huen, who has been working with the CHAMACOS study for many years. Dr. Huen?s extensive skills and experience at the Children?s Environmental Health Laboratory and SPH Biorepository are crucial for the longevity of the Biorepository and the research that it supports. As an environmental and molecular epidemiologist, Dr. Huen has published extensively on the functional genomics of PON1 and on relationships of environmental exposures with epigenetic profiles in CHAMACOS children. For this supplement, she will support the main goals of the parent grant to maintain the vital functions of the SPH Biorepository. She will continue to train students, researchers, and new faculty members on essential skills for utilizing the invaluable specimens stored at the Biorepository from development and validation of molecular assays to statistical analysis of complex datasets. Further, securing her position will enable us to support her career development as she continues to pursue independent research paths and applies for additional NIH funding in the future.
The CHAMACOS study, focused on low-income Latino families living in the agricultural Salinas Valley, is the longest running environmental epidemiology birth cohort study examining the effects of environmental exposures on neurodevelopment, growth, and respiratory disease in children. The parent grant has provided infrastructure support for the CHAMACOS cohort study and has helped to ensure participant retention, preserve our extensive biorepository housing over 300,000 biological and environmental specimens, and support data management and sharing, thereby strengthening our ability to answer key questions about the impact of environmental exposures on health over the life course and assuring that the extensive resources generated by the CHAMACOS study will be effectively used by investigators worldwide for years to come. Given the recent shortfall in NIH funding for the SPH Biorepository and Children?s Environmental Health laboratory, this administrative supplement will provide critical support to ensure the position of early stage investigator Dr. Karen Huen, whose skills and experience are crucial for maintaining the Biorepository and ensuring proper training of students, researchers, and new faculty who will continue to utilize biological specimens collected from CHAMACOS participants in their future research.
| Tindula, Gwen; Murphy, Susan K; Grenier, Carole et al. (2018) DNA methylation of imprinted genes in Mexican-American newborn children with prenatal phthalate exposure. Epigenomics 10:1011-1026 |
| Berger, Kimberly; Eskenazi, Brenda; Balmes, John et al. (2018) Associations between prenatal maternal urinary concentrations of personal care product chemical biomarkers and childhood respiratory and allergic outcomes in the CHAMACOS study. Environ Int 121:538-549 |
| Huen, Karen; Solomon, Olivia; Kogut, Katherine et al. (2018) PON1 DNA methylation and neurobehavior in Mexican-American children with prenatal organophosphate exposure. Environ Int 121:31-40 |
