In addition to the research projects funded directly by the MADRES Center, multiple other studies utilize the MADRES cohort. These studies investigate additional questions related to the effects of environmental exposures on the health of mothers and their children. Currently, five ongoing research projects are utilizing the MADRES cohort:
Read our article about the MADRES cohort study design, protocol and profile published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth.
- Early life fluoride exposure, neurodevelopment and childhood sleep patterns: This study examines whether childhood fluoride exposure is associated with sleep patterns and fatigue as mediated by melatonin rhythms. This research has the potential to advance our understanding of a modifiable potential risk factor for childhood sleep disturbances.
- Influence of prenatal psychosocial stressors on maternal and fetal circulating miRNAs: This study investigates the effects of psychosocial and chemical stressors on the pattern of expression of maternal and fetal miRNA, as well as the effects of the expression of miRNA on newborn and early childhood health outcomes. The study makes use of using state-of-the-art technologies to characterize the full repertoire of miRNA.
- Lifecourse Approach to Developmental Repercussions of Environmental Agents on MEtabolic and Respiratory health (LA DREAMERs): This project is studying how environmental factors contribute to the origins of childhood and emerging adult respiratory and metabolic health across multiple generations. The study combines 8,931 subjects from the MADRES cohort and the Children’s Health Study (CHS) – two population-based longitudinal cohorts of children that cover the prenatal to early adulthood periods of exposure, focusing on the health effects of ambient and near-roadway air pollution, metals, and novel albumin adducts in a series of three distinct research projects focused on respiratory health, metabolic health, and statistical methods.
- Metabolomic signatures linking air pollution, obesity and diabetes: This study focuses on identifying key metabolic pathways underlying the associations of childhood air pollution exposures with body fat, ectopic fat, and diabetes traits, such as glucose concentrations and insulin resistance, using a metabolomics approach.
- Prenatal air pollution, fetal development and early childhood obesity risk: This study investigates the role of prenatal environmental exposures to air pollution, and specific constituents of air pollution, using state-of-the-art personal monitoring to reduce exposure measurement error and innovative phenotyping of fetal growth (fetal liver blood flow).
- Prenatal metal mixtures, fetal growth, and the role of microRNAs: This study examines the impact of prenatal metal mixture exposures on fetal growth, as well as the role of altered maternal circulating miRNAs on these relationships, using metals exposure assessment methods, weighted quantile sum regression, and Bayesian kernel machine regression, structural equation models, and RNA-Seq.
Interested in proposing or collaborating a research idea using MADRES data? Contact us at madreseh@usc.edu.