Developmental Susceptibility Research Core
Overview
Developmental susceptibility refers to the increased vulnerability to toxic agents experienced during certain stages of life, such as fetal development and childhood. This research Core focuses on health effects of environmental exposures from the time of conception through childhood and examines effects such as pregnancy loss, birth defects, neurodevelopmental deficits, and childhood cancer. The researchers, who represent both laboratory sciences and epidemiology, are also looking at paternal and maternal influences on susceptibility to environmental exposures.
Objectives
The purpose of this Core is to stimulate a collaborative multidisciplinary program of research on how environmental exposures at particular stages in the life cycle affect susceptibility to disease and to deficits in development. The objectives of the Developmental Susceptibility Research Core are to:
- foster and expand collaborative research on the effects of exposures during vulnerable stages in development, including adverse outcomes of pregnancy, birth defects, neurodevelopmental deficits, childhood cancer and asthma;
- establish effective mechanisms for sharing ideas, discussing research in progress, and fostering new interdisciplinary ventures that integrate laboratory, clinical, and epidemiologic approaches to developmental studies; and
- promote incorporation of molecular and genetic markers into traditional epidemiology studies of reproductive and developmental outcomes.
Developmental Susceptibility Core investigators are engaged in a broad spectrum of research ranging from studies of embryologic development and mechanisms of birth defects, to epidemiologic investigations of environmental and occupational exposures in relation to complications and adverse outcomes of pregnancy, neurodevelopment, and childhood cancer.
Developmental Susceptibility Research Accomplishments - 2006
