Pregnancy nutrition and infections' effects on early baby brain development
Nutrition and Inflammation in Pregnancy: Impacts on Early Human Brain Development
Aims to find out if improving nutrition and lowering inflammation during pregnancy helps unborn babies' brain growth in low-resource communities.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Brown University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Providence, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11312580 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you are pregnant in a low-resource community, this project links maternal nutrition support with testing and treatment for common infections to see how they affect your baby's early brain development. Researchers are building on an ongoing randomized trial and will measure mothers' diets, iron status, inflammation markers like hepcidin, and intestinal infections. Babies will be followed after birth with early developmental checks and biological samples to connect prenatal nutrition and inflammation to brain outcomes. The team wants to identify which nutrients and inflammatory pathways matter most so future care can better protect infant cognitive and emotional development.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are pregnant women (late pregnancy/third trimester) in low-resource settings, particularly in Sub‑Saharan Africa, willing to provide health information, biological samples, and have their infants followed after birth.
Not a fit: People who are not pregnant, pregnant outside the targeted regions, or unwilling to attend follow-up visits or provide samples are unlikely to benefit directly from participating.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could guide pregnancy nutrition and infection treatments that improve infants' cognitive and psychological development.
How similar studies have performed: Animal and observational studies support links between nutrition, inflammation, and fetal brain development, but randomized human trials focusing on prenatal hepcidin, iron, and infection effects are limited, so parts of this approach are novel.
Where this research is happening
Providence, United States
- Brown University — Providence, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Lee, Anne Shee Cc — Brown University
- Study coordinator: Lee, Anne Shee Cc
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.