# COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcomes (COMBO): brain-behavior functioning

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2021 · $817,582

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have reverberated through every aspect of our civilization.
While SARS-CoV-2, the viral etiology of COVID-19, seems to spare infants in terms of actual infection, it is
currently unknown whether maternal infection during pregnancy will have long-term effects on children born
during the pandemic. A variety of prenatal insults, including infections and stress, are well-known to lead to
increased risk of affective disorders in both mother and child. With its disproportionate reach into already
disadvantaged minority communities, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dyad is currently unknown
and potentially of unprecedented magnitude with enduring consequences for women's mental health and
children's developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). The COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcome
(COMBO) initiative, a large multidisciplinary collaborative, was established at Columbia University Irving
Medical Center to follow SARS-CoV-2 exposed laboring mothers and their newborns and compare their long-
term health outcomes to case-matched dyads without prenatal exposure. This proposal will follow a subset of
the larger COMBO cohort to study socioemotional circuits (fronto-limbic) and behavior (caregiving and
bonding) in 100 mother-child dyads from prepartum to 18 months postpartum. The team assembled to carry
out this study consists of two provider scientists (Dumitriu, pediatrician and neuroscientist, & Monk, clinical
psychologist embedded in Ob/Gyn) and neuroscientist/pediatric neuroimager (Marsh). Using an innovative
dyadic approach, olfaction testing, multimodal MRI, wearable in-home physiological recordings, observational
mother and child assessments (free play, routine care, Harvard Reactivity and Still Face paradigms), this
proposal will test the overarching hypothesis that prenatal SARS-CoV-2 exposure affects (1) mother and (2)
child brain and behavior, and (3) demonstrate that the socioemotional health of each member of the mother-
child dyad is intrinsically related to that of the other. Detecting COVID-19-related early neurobehavioral effects
on mothers and the next generation will provide insights into intervention strategies and contribute significantly
to DOHaD and stress science.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10235920
- **Project number:** 1R01MH126531-01
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** DANI DUMITRIU
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $817,582
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-04-12 → 2026-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10235920

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10235920, COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcomes (COMBO): brain-behavior functioning (1R01MH126531-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10235920. Licensed CC0.

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