Current and past funding and awards

  • Maternal Obesity, Breastmilk Composition, and Infant Growth

    Details on NIH site
    Grant type
    Federal
    Grantor
    NIH-NICHD
    Grant number
    5R01HD080444-07
    Date range
    Mar 2020 to Feb 2025

    The objective of this project is to test the lactational programming hypothesis in humans; that is, to assess 1) whether key appetite and satiety regulating hormone levels and adipocytokine levels are altered in the breastmilk of obese women, and 2) whether concentrations of these breastmilk factors are associated with the increased rate of adipose tissue gains seen in offspring of obese mothers.

  • Telomere Length Dynamics in Relation to Changes in Adiposity and Metabolic Risk

    Details on NIH site
    Grant type
    Federal
    Grantor
    Univ. of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (NIH-NIDDK Flow-thru)
    Grant number
    5R01DK111201-04
    Date range
    Sep 2016 to Aug 2021
    Primary investigator(s)
    Lee, Curran
    Co-investigator(s)
    Ellen W. Demerath

    The study examines serial measures of leukocyte telomere length, a biomarker of cellular aging in over 1700 adults in the Fels Longitudinal Study to test the cumulative relationship of weight and adiposity gains at different points in the lifecourse on aging. Telomerase activity, an enzyme responsible for restoring loss of telomeric DNA will also be measured in a cross-sectional subset and SNP data will be used to assess genetic associations with telomere length and telomerase activity.

  • Gut Microbiomes and Early Human Neurodevelopment

    Details on NIH site
    Grant type
    Federal
    Grantor
    NIH-NICHD
    Grant number
    1R21HD099473-01
    Date range
    Sep 2019 to Aug 2021
    Primary investigator(s)
    Gale, Georgieff, Knight
    Co-investigator(s)
    Ellen W. Demerath

    This study leverages existing data from the MILk Study (Demerath, PI) to test the hypothesize that variations in microbiome signatures during infancy correlate with differences in hippocampus function, and that early-life events including antibiotic usage may disrupt the microbiome and result in altered memory functions.

  • Genomics of Human Milk Composition and Its Effects on Infant Growth and Development

    Grant type
    University sponsored
    Grantor
    Masonic Cross-Departmental Grants in Children’s Health (MPI), University of Minnesota School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics
    Date range
    Jan 2021 to Dec 2022

    This proposal contains complementary analyses of the molecular and cellular composition of breast milk, the effects of maternal obesity on milk composition, and the impact of host-microbiome interactions in milk on the infant gut microbiome. In Aim 1 we apply single-cell RNA sequencing to milk to identify obesity-associated changes to the cellular composition and gene expression of milk, which will reveal the physiological processes that may underlie obesity-related challenges to establishing breastfeeding.

  • PFAS Concentrations in Human Milk: A Sibling Study

    Grant type
    Federal
    Grantor
    NIH/NIEHS: Human Health Environmental Assessment Research (HHEAR) Pilot Grant
    Grant number
    HHEAR PF-10
    Date range
    Jun 2021 to May 2022
    Primary investigator(s)
    Ellen W. Demerath

    The EPA has called for aggressively expanded research on PFAS health effects. Breastfeeding and childbirth are the major excretion pathways for maternal serum concentrations of PFAS and thus serve as major sources of concentrated infant exposure at a critical period for development. This pilot and feasibility study will employ a paired sibling design to assess human milk PFAS concentrations from 25 exclusively breast-feeding women from the MILK Study who have stored samples obtained from both their first-born and second-born children.