Yale Receives Additional $10.7 Million For Largest Study Ever On How Genes And E

[Guest guest]

Yale Receives Additional $10.7 Million For Largest Study Ever On How

Genes And Environment Affect Children's Health

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124330.php

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

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 , 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 B. Bracken, principal investigator and the

Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology, and Kathleen Belanger,

research scientist in epidemiology. Other lead investigators are Dr

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 J. Alpern, M.D. " I am delighted that Dr.

Bracken has been funded to continue and extend his work on this

cohort. "