# Research Project 1 - The pregnancy ImmunOME

> **NIH NIH U19** · MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2022 · $470,797

## Abstract

Project 1: Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized our ability to decode the rules of maternal immunity. There is a
significant gap in knowledge regarding innate and adaptive immune responses over the course of pregnancy
and how trimester-specific perturbations in the maternal immunological signature might manifest in attributable
risk or benefit to the maternal-fetal dyad. The COVID-19 vaccines and their real-world use by pregnant women
present a unique opportunity to define the baseline, trimester-specific immune signature, and to examine the
maternal immune response after in vivo perturbation with both de novo (never before seen by the immune
system) and recall (boosted responses such as influenza and pertussis) vaccines across the trimesters of
pregnancy. In Project 1 in the Maternal ‘Omics to Maximize Immunity (MOMi) consortium, we propose to
apply a multi-‘OMICs approach to deeply and comprehensively capture shifts in the maternal immune
response before and after maternal immunization across pregnancy. We will profile maternal peripheral
blood mononuclear cells, plasma, placental cell isolates, and stool from pre- and post-maternal vaccination,
using single cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq), Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin with high-throughput
sequencing (scATAC-Seq), Cellular Indexing of Transcriptomes and Epitopes by Sequencing (scCITE-Seq),
proteomics, metabolomics, and metagenomics, and integrate all data through the Data Management and
Analysis Core (DMAC). In collaboration with Project 2, the ultimate goal is to define maternal immunity
longitudinally across pregnancy trimesters in the normal baseline and vaccinated state, in order to build the most
comprehensive Pregnancy Immune Atlas of innate and adaptive immune profiling across the maternal-fetal
dyad. We will examine how the cellular transcriptome, microbiome, metabolome, and proteome shifts over the
course of pregnancy, and how they are modified in response to different vaccine platforms (mRNA, adenovirus,
adjuvanted protein) and types (de novo versus recall), providing a unique opportunity to profile the maternal
immune response with unprecedented resolution. This detailed map of pregnancy immunity will generate critical
data to open previously unrecognized therapeutic windows in this unusual and understudied area of human
immunology.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10420109
- **Project number:** 1U19AI167899-01
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** Andrea Goldberg Edlow
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $470,797
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-04-19 → 2027-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10420109

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10420109, Research Project 1 - The pregnancy ImmunOME (1U19AI167899-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10420109. Licensed CC0.

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