# Trajectories and Environments in Autism: a Multi-cohort Study (TEAMS) following autism families in ECHO Phase 2

> **NIH NIH UG3** · DREXEL UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $1,069,454

## Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed in
childhood, with a prevalence of 2% or higher. ASD presents along a spectrum, and characterization according
to quantitative measures demonstrates continuous distribution of core traits extending into the general
population. While both ASD diagnosis and ASD-related traits have been shown to be highly heritable, evidence
also supports contributions of environmental risk factors, including prenatal exposure to air pollution and intake
of certain nutrients. In order to address prior gaps in the understanding of environmental risk factors for autism,
our team developed the Autism Spectrum Disorder Enriched Risk (ASD-ER) “cohort of cohorts.” In the first phase
of ECHO, our cohort contributed to harmonization efforts of diet, air pollution, and neurodevelopment, and
advanced use of abbreviated measures of the ASD-related phenotype, while capitalizing on the unique data for
autism research presented by ECHO. Here, we propose to build off of these efforts while continuing follow-up of
ASD-ER ECHO Phase-1 children through the critical and under-studied period of adolescence and early
adulthood in the Trajectories and Environments in Autism: a Multi-cohort Study (TEAMS) project. The goals of
this project are to: 1) Examine joint effects of early life air pollution exposure and diet on
neurodevelopmental outcomes in ECHO-wide data, addressing the role that folate, fish/fatty acids, and other
dietary factors may play in mitigating air pollution associations across neurodevelopmental diagnoses and their
related quantitative traits (ASD, ID, and ADHD); 2) Evaluate multi-domain health trajectories of adolescents
across neurodevelopmental outcomes in ECHO-wide data, and identify predictors of positive trajectories
and outcomes. Using the unique longitudinal data collected through ECHO efforts, we will examine trajectories
across mental and physical health and examine how these differ across neurodevelopmental diagnoses and
traits. We will also seek to further characterize our specialized outcome area of neurodevelopment, and
autism specifically, by conducting psychometric analyses of dimensional measures. Finally, we will 3) Maximize
recruitment and retention of our cohort participants via implementation of the ECHO protocol. We will
implement a unified recruitment and retention strategy facilitated by incentives and a network of support for
adolescents with neurodevelopmental conditions, transition-age autistic youth, and their families. TEAMS will be
the first longitudinal study of autistic younger sibling children followed from the womb to adulthood. In
doing so, our project presents unique opportunities to advance understanding of environmental predictors and
modifiers, conduct cross-outcome comparisons of neurodevelopmental disorders and their latent traits,
characterize multi-domain trajectories and identify predictors of positive outcomes in autistic adolesce...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10908660
- **Project number:** 5UG3OD023342-09
- **Recipient organization:** DREXEL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** KRISTEN Lyall
- **Activity code:** UG3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,069,454
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-21 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10908660

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10908660, Trajectories and Environments in Autism: a Multi-cohort Study (TEAMS) following autism families in ECHO Phase 2 (5UG3OD023342-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10908660. Licensed CC0.

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