# Identifying Newborns at Risk of Adverse Neurodevelopmental Outcomes and Obesity from Air Pollution.

> **NIH NIH UH3** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2022 · $92,037

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY:
The goal of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) is to contribute to the ECHO
consortium and to develop, validate, and implement an urgently needed new biomarker measurable in an
easy-to-obtain, small-volume cord blood sample that reflects prenatal exposure to widespread environmental
pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and is predictive of risk of adverse outcomes in the
domains of obesity and neurodevelopment. Identification of newborns at increased risk will allow for needed
early interventions. Once validated in CCCEH cohorts for PAH, this approach will be scalable to the ECHO
Consortium and can be applied to the prevention of risks from other environmental exposures. The Columbia
Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) birth cohorts, comprised of mothers and children who are
low income and minority (largely African-American and Latino), will make a unique contribution to the ECHO
Consortium (“Virtual Cohort”). They include the Mothers and Newborns, Sibling, and Fair Start birth cohorts, for
a total of 886 children presently enrolled, current funding allows for a total of 1,048 children to be enrolled by
2018. This project will leverage the comprehensive dataset already acquired by CCCEH on the associations
between prenatal exposure to a widespread toxic pollutant, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and
adverse outcomes including reduced IQ and ADHD as well as obesity in childhood. In a series of feasibility
studies in UG3, extensive data on prenatal PAH exposure (via personal air monitoring, PAH urinary
metabolites and PAH-DNA adducts) and DNA methylation in cord blood will be used to develop and validate a
novel epigenetic biomarker that will identify newborns who had high prenatal PAH exposure. The PAH-related
methylome will then be tested to determine whether it can be used to predict adverse postnatal
neurodevelopmental and obesogenic outcomes (“PAH-related risk methylome”). A mechanistic aim will assess
whether PAH-related structural brain changes are mediating the effect of the PAH-related methylome on
neurodevelopmental outcomes. In addition, to better understand the contribution of various emission sources
to overall PAH exposure estimated by the PAH methylome, a variety of metrics will be used including modeled
black carbon (BC) exposure, modeled residential distance to roadways, PAH-hemoglobin adducts in cord
blood and PAH measured via passive wristband samplers. In the UH3 phase of the grant, the methylomic
approach will be tested in the larger ECHO cohort to cross-validate and evaluate the prediction models in
different populations across the country. The cohorts of the CCCEH will extend the value by the ECHO
consortium to answer critical questions relating to the role of the early life environment on children’s health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10673231
- **Project number:** 3UH3OD023290-07S1
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Julie Beth Herbstman
- **Activity code:** UH3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $92,037
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-09-21 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10673231

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10673231, Identifying Newborns at Risk of Adverse Neurodevelopmental Outcomes and Obesity from Air Pollution. (3UH3OD023290-07S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10673231. Licensed CC0.

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