# Iowa CBDRP: Component A BD-STEPS II Core

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2020 · $900,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
In the US, major birth defects affect a delivery every 4½ minutes and the morbidity and mortality of tens of
thousands of children annually. An environmental (i.e. non-inherited) exposure or causal gene variant is
estimated to explain about one-third of all defects that occur. Since 1996, the Iowa Center for Birth Defects
Research and Prevention (CBDRP) has played a leadership role in surveillance and research of major birth
defects. Our partnerships with the Iowa Department of Public Health and Iowa Registry for Congenital and
Inherited Disorders provide comprehensive and timely surveillance of deliveries to Iowa residents. With these
partnerships, we successfully enrolled mothers in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) and
Birth Defects Study To Evaluate Pregnancy exposureS (BD-STEPS) I. Using exposure data and biologic
specimens collected, we made substantial contributions to birth defects epidemiology, ranging from methods
development to identifying gene-environment interaction effects. Our work has provided critical insights into
birth defect etiology and been disseminated in high-impact journals. We propose to expand the work of the
Iowa CBDRP through successful participation in the BD-STEPS II. Our overall goal is to identify modifiable
maternal exposures in early pregnancy, which may increase the risk for having a pregnancy affected with a
major birth defect. We will expertly conduct comprehensive and timely data collection and reporting for the BD-
STEPS II using our highly experienced surveillance and research infrastructures. Our proposed research
approach is not only consistent with the BD-STEPS II required activities, but expands and innovates the
conceived study design (RFA-DD-18-001). We propose to address critical barriers identified in a recent review
of the NBDPS to investigate modifiable risk factors for major birth defects. To accomplish this, we will expand
the traditional epidemiology approach (used in the NBDPS and BD-STEPS) by integrating a multiomics
systems epidemiology approach. Our systems approach is novel in its application to NBDPS and BD-STEPS
data. It will use state of the art genomic analysis to lead to improved characterization of the case phenome and
improved delineation of pathways that influence birth defect development via the exposome. The expertise of
our key personnel and collaborating investigators, along with access to rich exposure and biologic data from
independent populations, provides us with unique resources among all CBDRPs, allowing us to successfully
implement our systems approach. Additionally, we will continue our leadership role and expand our training of
a future generation of birth defect researchers. Along with continuing to train pre-doctoral and postdoctoral
scholars, we will now include bachelor’s scholars. Our key personnel, investigators, and scholars will continue
our high productivity in disseminating findings from NBDPS and BD-STEPS through peer-revie...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9973031
- **Project number:** 5U01DD001223-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** KRISTIN CONWAY
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $900,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9973031

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9973031, Iowa CBDRP: Component A BD-STEPS II Core (5U01DD001223-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9973031. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*