Research Overview

Research Focus 1

Applying Precision Medicine Approaches to link the Prenatal Environment to Infant and Child Health

Precision medicine is an innovative approach that tailors disease prevention that incorporates information about genes, environments, and lifestyles. Precision medicine can improve prenatal care because the traditional "one-size fits all" approach to prenatal care cannot capture the complexity of maternal-fetal biology. We are currently deploying a precision medicine approach through integration of molecular signatures of prenatal exposures and outcomes. Molecular signatures are sets of biomolecular features generated from ‘omics data, including epigenomic, metabolomic, or proteomic data that can be used to either gain mechanistic insight or for prediction in the context of clinical phenotypes We have generated placental molecular signatures in relation to a variety of relevant exposures and outcomes, which we are in the process of integrating:

Prenatal Exposures

• Phthalates

• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

• Organophosphate Esters

Maternal Factors

• Prenatal Vitamin D levels

• Maternal Stressful Events

Perinatal Outcomes

• Preterm Birth

Research Focus 2

Building Multi-omic networks to better understand placental biology