Keeping and expanding CHAMACOS families' health tracking and sample collection
Fostering Scientific and Workforce Development by Maintaining and Enriching the CHAMACOS Birth Cohort
This project keeps tracking the health and biological samples of Latino farmworker mothers and their children so researchers can learn how environmental and social factors affect kids across generations.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California Berkeley NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Berkeley, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11247989 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
I would be part of a long-term effort that has followed Latino mothers enrolled in pregnancy in 1999-2000 and their children into young adulthood, with regular health visits, questionnaires, and many stored biological samples. The team collects blood, urine, breastmilk, hair, saliva, teeth, dust and other environmental samples and measures growth, lung function, neurodevelopment, puberty, cardiometabolic health, and mental health. They maintain and expand a large biorepository and plan to begin collecting data on the third generation (children of the original participants) to look for multigenerational effects. The project also includes community engagement and workforce development to support participants and local research capacity.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal participants are Latino farmworker mothers from the original CHAMACOS cohort, their young adult children, and now the offspring of those children, primarily in the Salinas, California area.
Not a fit: People who are not part of the cohort or whose health issues are unrelated to environmental exposures or child development are unlikely to gain direct clinical benefit from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could identify environmental and social contributors to child and family health that guide prevention efforts and public health policies.
How similar studies have performed: Other long-term birth cohort studies have produced influential public health findings, and CHAMACOS has already yielded many published insights, though multigenerational epigenetic work remains a newer frontier.
Where this research is happening
Berkeley, United States
- University of California Berkeley — Berkeley, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Gunier, Robert — University of California Berkeley
- Study coordinator: Gunier, Robert
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.