Despite the knowledge that pregnancy affects the health trajectory of both mother and child across the lifecourse, significant racial disparities exist. African-American (AA) women are at greatest risk for preterm birth and for dying from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) than any other group in the U.S. To decipher what drives these disparities, we are proposing a new Environmental Health Disparities Maternal and Infant Environmental Health Riskscape (MIEHR) Research Center. The Goal of the MIEHR Research Center is to elucidate contributions of the biological, physical, social and built environments of the environmental riskscape to environmental health disparities in pregnant women and their infants. The Houston-based MIEHR leverages partnerships and strong institutional support from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Southern University, the fourth largest historically black university in the U.S. Notably, Houston offers a microcosm for research at the intersection of environmental exposures and health disparities, with its diverse multi-ethnic and multi-racial population and documented environmental injustices. The city has the largest petrochemical complex in the U.S., numerous hazardous waste sites, no zoning and is at risk for natural and industrial disasters. The MIEHR Research Center has two synergistic Research Projects that build on a unique ongoing, perinatal database and biospecimen repository: the BCM Peribank. Project 1: The Environmental Riskscape, Disasters and Obstetric Outcomes will utilize an epidemiologic approach to identify differences in race-specific associations between the mixture of individual chemicals (i.e. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals) and place-based stressors in the riskscape and preterm birth. This project will also examine the impact of Hurricane Harvey on racial disparities in these exposures. Project 2: Disparities Aware Classifiers for Maternal and Infant Health will use an ?omics? approach to develop and validate disparity aware classifiers for preterm birth and HDP for AA and non-Hispanic White women. The classifiers will be built from data obtained at delivery and the predictive capability of these classifiers will then be tested in second trimester pregnant women. MIEHR activities will be informed by a Community Engagement and Dissemination Core, which will enhance environmental health literacy and capacity for sustainable initiatives that build community resilience. An Investigator Development Core will support innovative pilot research that will promote career development of talented investigators from health disparity populations and increase capacity for future environmental health disparities research. The Administrative Core will provide organizational and integration support for MIEHR investigators, institutions and engaged communities. The MIEHR Research Center will accomplish its goals in research, career development and community engagement with multidisciplinary and diverse teams of community and academic experts, interdisciplinary collaborations between synergistic research projects, activities that develop a diverse workforce and community engagement that fosters equitable community stakeholder interactions.
The Overall Goal of the MIEHR Research Center is to elucidate the contributions of exposures in the biological, physical, social and built environments of the environmental riskscape to environmental health disparities in pregnant women and their infants. The MIEHR Center has two synergistic Research Projects that build on a unique ongoing, perinatal database and biospecimen repository: the BCM PeriBank, a Community Engagement and Dissemination Core (CEDC) and an Investigator Development Core (IDC). The MIEHR Center will accomplish its goals in research, career development and community engagement with multidisciplinary and diverse teams of community and academic experts, interdisciplinary collaborations between synergistic research projects, activities that develop a diverse workforce and community engagement that fosters equitable community stakeholder interactions.
