# Revealing environmental chemical exposome in a diverse prenatal population and relationships to maternal and perinatal health (REVEAL)

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2023 · $594,108

## Abstract

ABSTRACT - Revealing environmental chemical exposome in a diverse prenatal population and
relationships to maternal and perinatal health (REVEAL)
Our renewal application builds on our original R01 by advancing analytical chemistry and computational
techniques to characterize more fully the prenatal chemical exposome and its links to adverse maternal and
perinatal health outcomes (e.g., gestational diabetes, preterm birth, and low birthweight). Prevalence of these
outcomes has increased and is linked to chemical exposures in the US population. Prenatal exposures to a
broad range of environmental chemicals, including plastic related chemicals and per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances (PFAS), have been shown to adversely affect health, but technological challenges have left
significant data gaps hindering our ability to characterize environmental exposures and drivers of disease.
Over 350,000 chemicals and compound mixtures are registered for production worldwide, and thousands of
high–production volume chemicals are used extensively in the US, yet human biomonitoring capacity covers a
very small fraction of the chemical exposome. In our previous R01 we pioneered a nontargeted analysis (NTA)
workflow, with significantly improved computational and analytical methods using high-resolution mass
spectrometry (HRMS) in a demographically diverse population of maternal-newborn pairs. We were the first to
identify multiple chemicals in maternal and newborn sample used in high volumes in the US not previously
detected in human blood samples including chemicals used in personal care products and fragrances,
production of plastics, surfactants, and stain treatment. We also identified over 50 novel chemicals with limited
to no information on their uses or sources and found significant associations between exogenous and
endogenous compounds, several chemical groups (siloxanes, PFAS, and chemicals used in plastics and
rubber) and biomarkers of lipid metabolism and regulation, supporting a link to gestational diabetes. For our
renewal project, we propose to expand our study population by analyzing an additional 750 2nd trimester
pregnancy samples, 300 of the samples matched to our original 3rd trimester samples. We will contribute to
improved understanding of the prenatal chemical exposome by integrating NTA with improved computational
methods including a chemical suspect database ~1,000,000 exogenous and endogenous chemical features in
combination with upgraded software for supercomputing to identify ~500 chemical prenatal exposures and
estimate their concentrations using new machine learning algorithms. We will use this data to characterize
complex relationships between multiple exogenous chemical exposures, endogenous effect biomarkers, and
maternal and perinatal health outcomes. The overarching goal of this renewal is to develop an integrated
package of analytic and computational tools that allow expanded capacity to identify and calculate chemical
concentration...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10587408
- **Project number:** 2R01ES027051-06A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Tracey J. Woodruff
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $594,108
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2016-09-30 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10587408

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10587408, Revealing environmental chemical exposome in a diverse prenatal population and relationships to maternal and perinatal health (REVEAL) (2R01ES027051-06A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10587408. Licensed CC0.

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