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Early Life Lead Exposure and Later Life Cognitive Function: Biological and Psychosocial Pathways

Award Number: K99ES038596
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2028

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Early Life Lead Exposure and Later Life Cognitive Function: Biological and Psychosocial Pathways - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Lead is a well-established neurotoxicant known for its adverse effects on neurodevelopment and cumulative impacts on adult cognition. Emerging evidence suggests that early life lead exposure may also increase the risk of later-life cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disease, independent of adult exposures. However, critical gaps remain in understanding how early life lead exposure contributes to cognitive aging, particularly regarding sensitive windows of vulnerability, interactions with social factors, and underlying mechanisms. The objective of this project is to elucidate the biological and psychosocial pathways linking early life lead exposures and later life cognitive function, focusing on identifying time-specific intervention points over the life course. We will test the central hypothesis that lead exposure during specific early developmental periods contributes to worse cognitive function in later life, which may be modified by psychosocial factors in childhood and adulthood and mediated through epigenetic alterations and adult health conditions. Leveraging the unique study design of the St. Louis Baby Tooth (SLBT) Study, which provides unprecedented early-life measures of lead exposure across prenatal and early postnatal periods in a population of older adults and cognitive assessments, health surveys, and blood samples in later life - this project will: (K99) Aim 1: Evaluate how psychosocial factors in childhood and adulthood modify the association between early life lead exposure and later-life cognitive function; (R00) Aim 2: Investigate whether adult cardiovascular, metabolic, and psychiatric comorbidities mediate the relationship between early life lead exposure and cognitive deficits; and (R00) Aim 3: Identify epigenetic signatures associated with early life lead exposure and their relation to cognitive outcomes. This K99/R00 will provide mentored training to gain expertise in cognitive aging and related comorbidities, social epidemiology, causal inference, and bioinformatics for epigenomics data analysis. Findings will offer immediate insight into risk factors for later-life cognitive impairment, sensitive windows of early life lead exposure, susceptible populations, and pathways through which lead exposures impact later-life cognitive dysfunction. This project, nested within the ongoing SLBT cohort study, will also be a launching point for future R01s examining clinical cardiometabolic measures, cognitive decline, and the cognitive exposome.


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: 2026 ( Subtotal = $119,524 )
2026	2026	PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE	1033 MASSACHUSETTS AVE STE 3	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02138	MIDDLESEX	USA	Environmental Health	000	1	7/1/2026	NEW	$119,524
														Subtotal = $119,524

Grand Total All Awards = $119,524

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Early Life Lead Exposure and Later Life Cognitive Function: Biological and Psychosocial Pathways

Award Number: K99ES038596

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2028

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