Yale Receives Additional $10.7 Million For Largest Study Ever On How Genes And Environment Affect Children's Health

Main Category: Genetics
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 06 Oct 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The Yale School of Public Health has received a $10.7 million grant to expand its participation in a national study that will follow 100,000 children from before birth to age 21 to understand factors that contribute to their health and development. Last year, Yale was awarded $15 million to start the work in New Haven County. With this additional grant, mothers and children from Litchfield County, Connecticut, will be included in the project.

"This key expansion of one of the most important epidemiological studies in the United States today to include mothers and children from Litchfield County is a testament not only to the importance of this landmark study but the expertise of our faculty," said Paul Cleary, dean of the School of Public Health.

The study-believed to be the largest of its kind ever undertaken-is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The goal is to seek information that can be used to prevent and treat some of the nation's most pressing health problems, including autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. The study is funded by a special line item in the federal budget and overseen by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

"The National Children's Study is poised to identify the early antecedents of a broad array of diseases that affect both children and adults," said Elias Zerhouni, M.D., director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "Such insights will lead to the means to successfully treat and even prevent conditions that to date have defied our best efforts."

Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said the researchers will examine "not only what children are eating and drinking, but what's in the air they breathe, what's in the dust in their homes, and their possible exposures to chemicals from materials used to construct their homes and schools."

He said the researchers also would analyze blood and other biological samples from study participants to test for exposure to environmental factors and examine whether those factors might influence their health.

The Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology is conducting the study in collaboration with the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics, under the direction of Michael B. Bracken, principal investigator and the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology, and Kathleen Belanger, research scientist in epidemiology. Other lead investigators are Dr Jessica Illuzi, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and Lisbet Lundsberg, associate research scientist in epidemiology.

The Yale center currently is studying disease in pregnancy, early infancy and childhood. These studies evaluate genetic, perinatal, and environmental risk factors that lead to early onset and more severe illness in children and young adults. Studies are also being conducted on the causes of preeclampsia, which continues to be a leading cause of morbidity in pregnancy, the relationship between emotional health and pregnancy outcome, and the effects of air pollution on asthmatic symptoms and infant development.

Ultimately, there will be 105 study locations in urban and rural areas. The centers were chosen for their strong ability to collect data and to build extensive community networks for recruiting eligible women and newborns, as well as a demonstrated capability to protect the privacy of the participants' information. The centers include universities, hospitals, and health departments.

Prospective studies such as this are critical to our understanding of factors that improve and cause risk to our health," said Yale School of Medicine Dean Robert J. Alpern, M.D. "I am delighted that Dr. Bracken has been funded to continue and extend his work on this cohort."

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Paul Cleary
Michael B. Bracken

YALE