# Maternal Omics to Maximize Immunity

> **NIH NIH U19** · MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2024 · $600,000

## Abstract

Overall: Summary
 From the moment of fertilization to birth, the maternal immune system evolves, adapts, and supports the
growth of a fetal allograft that ultimately perpetuates the human race. Immunological changes throughout a
pregnancy play a key deterministic role in the success of the pregnancy. While pregnancy was historically
regarded as a simple shift towards tolerance, emerging immunological data point to remarkable dynamic
changes during pregnancy. The pregnancy immunome must protect the fetus from a maternal attack while at
the same time it must afford the maternal-fetal dyad protection from invading pathogens. The health of the mother
and the fetus requires that these two opposing immunological tasks work in concert. Thus collectively, pregnancy
marks a whirlwind of immune adaptations that render the pregnant immune system a truly unique immunologic
marvel. Despite our growing appreciation for these highly controlled dynamic shifts, the precise mechanisms that
lead to optimal pregnancy health, profoundly impacting both mother and fetus, are incompletely understood,
delaying the development of targeted therapies for this population. Capitalizing on this unique moment in vaccine
history, with the introduction of several novel-vaccine platforms for SARS-CoV-2, the consortium will build a
Pregnancy Immune Atlas via the application of high-density immunological profiling technologies to deeply and
comprehensively dissect the overall changes that occur across pregnancy and how the immune system, as a
collective, responds to in vivo perturbations with vaccines. Using both de novo vaccine induced immune
responses and booster vaccination, the consortium will capture overall changes in the pregnant ImmunOME as
well as shifts in the pregnant AdaptOME to fully capture the immunological mechanisms that govern the balanced
growth of the fetus and battle of the maternal:fetal dyad against invading pathogens. Thus, together the Maternal
‘Omics to Maximize Immunity (MOMi) consortium seeks to build the foundational data to advance our
knowledge of natural tolerance, fertility, shifts in immunity during pregnancy to better understand this evolutionary
marvel required for the perpetuation of the human species.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11144635
- **Project number:** 3U19AI167899-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** MICHAL Aviva ELOVITZ
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $600,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-04-19 → 2027-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11144635

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11144635, Maternal Omics to Maximize Immunity (3U19AI167899-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11144635. Licensed CC0.

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