2022-2024 US DOHaD Society Meetings

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ABSTRACT The fundamental concept of Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases (DOHaD), which posits that early- life events or exposures determine the health outcomes across the life span, has been well represented by the US DOHaD Society exemplified by its annual national meeting since its inception in 2016. Its annual meeting brings together investigators with diverse backgrounds who otherwise may not likely interact, including those researching in the areas of developmental biology, life course epidemiology, nutrition, environmental toxicology, cancer, stress, and endocrinology. Such individuals span institutions across the US from universities to industry to government agencies (NIH, EPA, NIEHS) to share knowledge and recent advancements on how environmental toxicants, nutrients, pharmaceutical agents, pathogens, gut microbiota, stress, and emerging factors influence developing fetuses and newborns, and thereby contribute to their health and disease across the life span. Further, presentations also delve into how such factors might lead to harmful effects in the subsequent generations, i.e., transgenerational effects. The major goal of the US DOHaD Society’s annual meeting is to foster multidisciplinary interactions and promote collaborations on these diverse topics. The second objective is to provide opportunity for trainees (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty) to interact with world-renown experts, facilitating the development of future scientists and career opportunities in the field. The third objective is to continue promoting diversity, inclusivity, and equal representation of sex, gender and underrepresented minority groups as speakers and session leaders. Notably, women and minority represented >50% and >20% speakers and moderators, respectively, over the last five meetings. The past five conferences have been enormously successful, particularly the 2021 hybrid (in-person and virtual) meeting despite the ongoing COVID pandemic. Such successes provide impetus for continued and permanent annual meetings. The 6th, 7th, and 8th Annual Meetings will again be a hybrid format and held at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, 2022), the Mercy’s Children Hospital (Kansas City, 2023) and the Rizzo Center (Chapel Hill, 2024), respectively. The theme for the 2022 meeting will be “Environmental Exposures: Assessment Methodologies, Mechanisms, and Health Outcomes”. Analogous to the 2021 meeting, the program will include a dedicated day on career development and grant writing that will be provided in kind to all trainees. Preliminary themes for 2023 and 2024 will cover topics including maternal microbiota and child development, exosomes as carriers of biomarkers, effects of maternal supplemental folate, choline and DHA on offspring health outcomes associated with epigenomic changes, and epidemiological analyses of long-term health outcomes associated with heat stress during pregnancy and lactation. In short, the strength of the U.S. DOHaD Society lies in its diversity in terms of the research it represents and those researching these areas.