# Prenatal PM2.5 and programming of respiratory outcomes: Placental biomarkers and effect modification by stress

> **NIH NIH K23** · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · 2020 · $157,013

## Abstract

Project Summary
I am a physician-scientist with a primary research interest in the programming of respiratory diseases by
prenatal/early-life environmental exposures, such as air pollution and maternal stress, with particular interest in
the programming mechanisms at the maternal-fetal interface, i.e., the placenta. With research linking ambient
air pollution to childhood respiratory disease, the goal of this proposal is to add to the growing research linking
urban air pollutants, stress, and respiratory development by identifying sensitive windows of exposure and
identifying novel mitochondrial and telomere biomarkers through which in utero exposures may be operating to
impact future respiratory development.
 Through formal coursework and expert mentoring, this award will enable me to develop the knowledge
and skills necessary to become an independent transdisciplinary environmental health scientist and achieve
my long-term career goals: to establish a competitive and successfully funded program to study the cumulative
effects of environmental exposures (e.g., air pollution/stress) on the programming of biological mechanisms
related to chronic childhood conditions. While this award focuses on respiratory outcomes, it is worth noting
that the knowledge and skills obtained will be broadly applicable to a range of child health outcomes given the
large number of childhood conditions with mitochondrial and telomere underpinnings (e.g., asthma, obesity,
cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive outcomes). Specifically, I will 1) obtain training in air pollution and
stress assessment in the context of a longitudinal cohort study design; 2) receive training and guidance in
selecting and interpreting mitochondrial and telomere analyses; and 3) undergo extensive training in advanced
quantitative methods (e.g. non-linear distributed lag models) to understand dose-response and temporal
relationships between air pollution and health.
 The proposed study will be the first to investigate windows of vulnerability to prenatal ambient air
pollution exposure on child respiratory development and to investigate mitochondrial and telomere biomarkers
in a target tissue (e.g. placenta) with respect to prenatal environmental exposures (e.g. ambient air pollution
and stress) and early respiratory phenotypes. We will use daily air pollution exposures derived from a validated
spatio-temporal modeling approach coupled with distributed lag methods to identify sensitive windows of air
pollution exposure on respiratory phenotype. We will use state-of-art analyses of placental mitochondrial and
telomere biomarkers that: 1) have been shown to be altered by environmental exposures; and 2) reflect
cumulative oxidative damage over gestation. This study is also highly cost effective as we will leverage the
resources of an existing well-phenotyped urban and ethnically-mixed pregnancy cohort [Perinatal
Environmental and Development Study (PEDS)] with extant environmental exposure (air po...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9894833
- **Project number:** 5K23HL135349-04
- **Recipient organization:** ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
- **Principal Investigator:** Alison G Lee
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $157,013
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-03-01 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9894833

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9894833, Prenatal PM2.5 and programming of respiratory outcomes: Placental biomarkers and effect modification by stress (5K23HL135349-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9894833. Licensed CC0.

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