# Biocultural investigation of maternal adversity on gene expression and DNA methylation in the placenta

> **NIH NIH F30** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2020 · $40,219

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The proposed fellowship plan is a transdisciplinary research project integrating training in anthropology, genetics,
and medicine. This project is supervised by Drs. Connie Mulligan (Dept of Anthropology) and Maureen Keller-
Wood (Dept of Pharmacodynamics) with the resources and support of the University of Florida (UF) College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences, the UF Genetics Institute, and the UF College of Medicine. The proposal is designed
to equip the trainee with the skills necessary to attain her career goal of becoming a physician-scientist who
bridges the divide between the social sciences and clinical medicine. War, sexual violence, and structural
violence (e.g. poverty) continue to be some of society’s most vexing problems both in the USA and abroad.
These are social problems that negatively impact the health of pregnant women to the detriment of both mothers
and newborns. Maternal adversity is associated with poor newborn outcomes such as low birthweight, which is
linked to a host of physical and mental consequences in adulthood. Anthropology enables researchers to identify
the most culturally-salient experiences of maternal adversity through a methodology called ethnography, allowing
for greater accuracy/precision in identifying the most salient aspects of maternal adversity. The Mulligan lab has
previously found that an ethnographically-derived measure of sexual violence was most strongly correlated with
newborn birthweight and DNA methylation signals in mother-child dyads in the eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC). This proposal will focus on sexual violence for two reasons: sexual violence is a ubiquitous
phenomenon also observed in the USA and identification of a molecular signature of extreme maternal adversity
may be easier to detect. Investigations striving to understand how maternal stress affect newborn outcomes (e.g.
birthweight) have focused primarily on epigenetic mechanisms with little attention to gene expression. Such
investigations collect DNA from peripheral blood cells and neglect a tissue that is critical to newborn health: the
placenta. The overarching hypothesis is that ethnographically-derived measures of maternal stress from
adversity are associated with epigenomic and transcriptomic signatures in the placenta. The specific aims will
test for associations between maternal stress and (1) gene expression and (2) DNA methylation in the placenta
to better understand newborn birth outcomes. A longitudinal cohort study of mother-offspring dyads in the
eastern DRC offers an ideal setting of extreme stressors that will facilitate testing this hypothesis. Successful
completion of these studies will enhance understanding of how to situate and ground investigations of maternal
and child health within the appropriate socio-cultural context. The skills cultivated from this project will enable
the trainee to pursue her long-term goal of investigating how social disparities become health disparitie...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9947741
- **Project number:** 5F30HD097935-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Chu Hsiao
- **Activity code:** F30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $40,219
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-16 → 2024-05-15

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9947741

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9947741, Biocultural investigation of maternal adversity on gene expression and DNA methylation in the placenta (5F30HD097935-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9947741. Licensed CC0.

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