Center for Children's Health, the Environment, the Microbiome, and Metabolomics (C-CHEM2)

 埃默里大学的“儿童健康、环境、微生物组和代谢组学中心”（C-CHEM 2）旨在研究环境暴露如何影响婴儿和儿童的微生物组，以及微生物组变化对神经发育的后续影响。建立一个以微生物组为重点的中心具有重要意义，因为微生物组是在生命的最初几年建立的，当时发育对环境暴露的影响高度敏感。研究人员的跨学科中心将对城市环境中的暴露、孕妇及其婴儿的微生物组以及相关的神经认知健康结果进行研究。该中心的工作是基于一个由800名非洲裔美国孕妇组成的纵向队列，这些孕妇目前正在接受分娩跟踪，旨在检查产妇产前压力及其与婴儿微生物组的关系。C-CHEM 2将对孕妇和婴儿的暴露进行强有力的评估，利用埃默里大学NIEHS资助的HERCULES中心的大量资源。 研究人员假设，环境暴露，微生物组，HPA轴和免疫系统共同影响神经认知和社会情感发育。分娩类型、遗传、喂养类型、产后压力和母婴互动被认为是这一代际风险过程的调节因素。项目1将侧重于测量孕妇及其婴儿的环境暴露，特别是家庭环境中干扰内分泌的化学品的内部暴露及其与出生结果的关系。项目2将收集婴儿微生物组、炎症标志物和发育数据，以研究产前暴露、婴儿肠-脑轴和生命前18个月认知/行为功能之间的关联。项目3将使用产前和产后样本的高分辨率代谢组学来测试复杂的相互作用（例如，暴露x代谢组，微生物组x代谢组，代谢组x HPA轴，免疫，神经认知和社会情绪测量），有助于神经认知和社会情绪结果。C-CHEM 2的社区外展和翻译核心建立在其NIEHS资助的HERCULES中心已有的大量社区参与的基础上，并为亚特兰大的非裔美国人家庭和科学家之间的双向交流提供了条件。研究人员的最终目标是评估孕妇环境暴露对其微生物组的影响，以及母亲微生物组对胎儿和婴儿神经发育的后续影响。实现这一目标将使我们能够更全面地了解这些影响，并因此能够将研究策略转化为减少环境暴露并减少由微生物组缓解的环境相关疾病的流行。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Emory University's "Center for Children's Health, the Environment, Microbiome, and Metabolomics" Center (C- CHEM2) seeks to conduct research on how environmental exposures influence the microbiome of infants and children and the subsequent influence of changes in the microbiome on neurodevelopment. The establishment of a Center focused on the microbiome is significant given that the microbiome is established during the first years of life when development is highly sensitive to the effects of environmental exposures. The investigators' interdisciplinary Center will conduct studies on exposures in an urban environment, the microbiome of pregnant women and their infants, and associated neurocognitive health outcomes. The work of the Center is based on a longitudinal cohort of 800 pregnant African American women who are currently being followed through delivery and designed to examine maternal prenatal stress and its association with the infant microbiome. C-CHEM2 will incorporate a robust assessment of the exposures of the pregnant mother and infant, leveraging substantial resources available from Emory's NIEHS-funded HERCULES Center. The investigators hypothesize that environmental exposure, the microbiome, HPA axis, and immune system together influence neurocognitive and socioemotional development. Type of delivery, genetics, type of feeding, postnatal stress, and maternal-infant interaction are posited as moderators of this intergenerational risk process. Project 1 will focus on the measurement of environmental exposures of the pregnant women and their infants and specifically the association of internal exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the home environment and their associations with birth outcome. Project 2 will collect infant microbiome, inflammatory marker, and developmental data to examine the association between the prenatal exposures, the infant gut-brain axis, and cognitive/behavioral functioning in the first 18 months of life. Project 3 will use high-resolution metabolomics of the pre- and postnatal samples to test for complex interactions (e.g., exposure x metabolome, microbiome x metabolome, metabolome x HPA axis, immune, neurocognitive and socioemotional measures) that contribute to neurocognitive and socioemotional outcomes. The Community Outreach and Translation Core of C-CHEM2 builds on substantial community engagement already in place in their NIEHS-funded HERCULES Center and provides for bi-directional exchange between African American families in Atlanta and scientists. The investigators' ultimate goal is to assess the influence of the environmental exposures of pregnant women on their microbiome and the subsequent impact of the mother's microbiome on neurodevelopment of the fetus and infant. Achieving this goal would afford a more complete understanding of these effects and consequent ability to translate research strategies to reduce environmental exposures and reduce the prevalence of environmentally-related diseases mitigated by the microbiome.