A University of Massachusetts Amherst professor of epidemiology has been awarded a three-year, $3,000,000 grant Outstanding New Environmental Scientist(ONES) grant from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, (NIEHS), in his ongoing efforts to learn more about the origins of autism and risk factors.
The NIEHS program, which is highly competitive and only awarded once a calendar year to a small number of young scientists, aims to support innovative research in environmental health by fostering early career leaders in the field.
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Assistant professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences will investigate the interaction of early life exposures to environmental pollutants, folate system during pregnancy, and genetic susceptibility in the onset of autism.
Oulhote said that there are many pieces to the puzzle. We want to combine them and add new things.
Oulhote, a professor of biostatistics at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, will be leading the project with Anna Maria SiegaRiz, a professor and dean. The research team also includes collaborators at Baylor College of Medicine and Brown University, Simon Fraser University in British Columbia (Canada), and Health Canada.
This is a highly prestigious award for Dr. Oulhote. It reflects the significant contribution this research will make in the scientific field and his potential to be a leader in this area, Siega-Riz states. I am thrilled to share my expertise in nutritional epidemiology with him and the other investigators working on this important topic in public health.
Oulhote and his colleagues will again use data from the National Center for Autism Research to investigate multiple modifiable risk factors. Maternal-Infant Research in Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) prospective cohort study. MIREC enrolled 2,001 pregnant women from 10 Canadian cities during the first trimester. This was between 2008-2011. The study has already been published in more than 70 scientific journals, with two of them led by Oulhote. Environmental Health PerspectivesEnvironment International.
Oulhotes will continue to build on his findings that exposure in the womb phthalates endocrine disrupting chemicals found in common household items was associated with autistic characteristics in young boys. This link was not evident in children whose mothers had taken the recommended amount of Folic acid during the first trimester.
Oulhote states that we want to examine other chemicals, such as air pollutants, particularly ultra-fine particles, pesticides, as well as the constituents of these particles.
The research team will measure phthalates, organophosphate pesticides, and estimate monthly exposures, including to nitrogen dioxide and particulate matters, during pregnancy and the first year.
They will also examine folate levels in maternal blood and folate receptor antibodies. Folate receptor antibodies that block folate metabolism and transport are more common in mothers of children with autism. Oulhote explains that even if they are getting enough folate, it might not get to the brain.
Researchers will be able to understand the intricate interplay and impact of different risk factors by using sophisticated statistical models. Oulhote says that we were applying and adapting machine learning methods to solve complex problems. You can’t look at everything individually. We want to see the whole picture and have methods that can accommodate this complexity.
Oulhote hopes that this research will lead to better prevention strategies of autism spectrum disorder and the associated behaviors at both the individual- and population-levels.
We want to understand how multiple pollutants and folate system are associated strongly with autistic traits, whether these chemical are associated with circulating folate levels, and how these effects differ based on folic acids intake, genetic susceptibility, and the presence of folate autoantibodies.
