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A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding Prenatal Health and Psychosocial Factors in Relation to the Maternal Inflammatory Milieu and Offspring Neurodevelopment

Award Number: F31HD109017
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/20/2023
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2024

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A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding Prenatal Health and Psychosocial Factors in Relation to the Maternal Inflammatory Milieu and Offspring Neurodevelopment - PROJECT SUMMARY Preconceptional and prenatal psychological stress, demographics, trauma, health, and nutrition all have potential to alter offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes. These aspects of the prenatal environment are hypothesized to influence the developing fetal brain via stress-sensitive aspects of maternal-placental-fetal biology (MPF), such as immune and endocrine functioning. However, previous research has centered around univariate analyses that do not consider the wide array of preconceptional and prenatal factors with potential to influence MPF biology and the developing fetal brain. Given the highly complex and interactive nature of these relationships, multivariate analyses are well-suited to identify canonical patterns in high-dimensionality analyses that may shed light on potential inflammatory mechanisms by which the preconceptional and prenatal environment may influence offspring brain development. Inflammation may be best characterized by considering multiple cytokines at once, as they appear to act co-dependently—cytokines that frequently work together to communicate form cytokine networks. The use of cytokine networks has become an increasingly popular method of conceptualizing and analyzing inflammation, given that specific cytokine networks are associated with certain psychopathologies or heterogenous presentations of mental disorders. Further, specific cytokine networks during pregnancy have been associated with altered offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes. Furthermore, little to none of these studies have been reproduced in independent datasets. Given the increasing awareness of limited reproducibility in neuroscience research, there has been an urgent push, spearheaded by the NIH, towards rigorously designed experiments and increased reproducibility. The overall goal of the proposed study is to examine how multiple preconceptional and prenatal factors affect maternal systemic inflammation during pregnancy and associated alterations in offspring neurodevelopment, while meeting the need for greater rigor and reproducibility in an innovative study design which will replicate complex multivariate analyses across three high-dimensionality datasets. The specific aims of this proposal are: 1) Identify maternal psychosocial contributors to the maternal inflammatory milieu during pregnancy at a multivariate level; 2) Identify potent health indicators of the maternal inflammatory milieu during pregnancy at a multivariate level; 3) Identify subgroups of participants with distinct patterns of maternal systemic inflammation and examine potentially relevant interactions between health and psychosocial factors, as well as neurodevelopmental outcomes associated with each cluster. This proposal intends to innovatively analyze cytokine network activity as a potential pathway by which aspects of the preconceptional and prenatal environment alter offspring neurodevelopment using multivariate statistical techniques. Additionally, given frequent challenges with reproducibility in science, results from the analyses will be cross validated across three independent datasets.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = -$33,916 )
2025	2024	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY	3181 SW SAM JACKSON PARK RD	PORTLAND	OR	97239	MULTNOMAH	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	001	2	5/27/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$12,882
2025	2024	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY	3181 SW SAM JACKSON PARK RD	PORTLAND	OR	97239	MULTNOMAH	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	2	4/17/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$21,034
														Subtotal = -$33,916

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $48,974 )
2024	2024	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY	3181 SW SAM JACKSON PARK RD	PORTLAND	OR	97239	MULTNOMAH	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	001	2	5/13/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,280
2024	2024	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY	3181 SW SAM JACKSON PARK RD	PORTLAND	OR	97239	MULTNOMAH	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	2	3/13/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$47,694
														Subtotal = $48,974

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $47,694 )
2023	2023	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY	3181 SW SAM JACKSON PARK RD	PORTLAND	OR	97239	MULTNOMAH	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	001	1	3/20/2023	NEW	$0
2023	2023	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY	3181 SW SAM JACKSON PARK RD	PORTLAND	OR	97239	MULTNOMAH	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	1	3/20/2023	NEW	$47,694
														Subtotal = $47,694

Grand Total All Awards = $62,752

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A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding Prenatal Health and Psychosocial Factors in Relation to the Maternal Inflammatory Milieu and Offspring Neurodevelopment

Award Number: F31HD109017

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/20/2023

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2024

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