# Maintaining and Expanding the CHAMACOS Epidemiology Cohort Infrastructure for Future Generations

> **NIH NIH R24** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2021 · $290,464

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 Since its inception in 1999, the CHAMACOS study is one of the longest running cohort studies examining
the impact of early life environmental exposures on neurodevelopment, growth, and respiratory disease and
the only one focused on low-income, Latino children in a farmworker population. We have collected extensive
health, exposure, demographic, neighborhood, and regional data, as well as biological (e.g. blood, urine,
breastmilk, hair, saliva, deciduous teeth) and environmental (e.g. dust, allergens) samples at multiple visits and
have created a large biorepository with more than 220,000 samples stored for future use. With over 140
publications, CHAMACOS is a successful and well-established environmental epidemiology cohort.
 We have used banked specimens and archived data to demonstrate relationships of pre- and postnatal
exposures to pesticides, flame retardants, and other chemicals with poorer neurodevelopment, reduced lung
function, obesity, and other outcomes. We have shown that environmental exposures affect a multitude of
molecular mechanisms that influence health, such as PON1 enzymatic activity, adipokine and isoprostane
levels, DNA methylation and miRNA expression. The CHAMACOS resources have supported multiple NIH,
EPA, and non-federal grants and trainees, including collaborations with other institutions. However, the
infrastructure required for management of this vast trove of data, the laboratory facilities to ensure the safety of
hundreds of thousands of samples, and the effort to keep families engaged and participating in this long-
running study have increased over time, while funding for these activities has decreased.
 The aims for this proposal are to (1) retain participation in the cohort through community engagement, (2)
maintain and strengthen data management infrastructure, (3) maintain and enhance the existing biorepository
through replacement, repair, and maintenance of aging deep freezers to ensure the integrity of samples and
improvements to systems to track samples used for multiple research grants, pilot studies, and collaborations,
(4) conduct validation, pilot, and feasibility studies to investigate new methods of assessing environmental
exposures, develop best practices for biorepositories, and explore novel methodologies related to
metabolomics, genomics, and the microbiome, and (5) develop a data sharing portal to encourage use by
outside collaborators of existing CHAMACOS data.
 In summary, infrastructure support for the CHAMACOS cohort study will preserve specimens, ensure well-
documented data for future studies and data sharing, and maintain participant retention, assuring effective
future use of these valuable resources. This maintenance grant will thereby strengthen our ability to answer
key questions about the impact of environmental exposures on health over the life course and will assure that
the extensive resources generated by the CHAMACOS study will be effectively used by investigators
worl...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10200041
- **Project number:** 5R24ES028529-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Brenda Eskenazi
- **Activity code:** R24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $290,464
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-30 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10200041

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10200041, Maintaining and Expanding the CHAMACOS Epidemiology Cohort Infrastructure for Future Generations (5R24ES028529-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10200041. Licensed CC0.

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