UA News

The UA's pediatrics department received a $44 million grant to participate in a national children's study, naming the UA one of 36 new centers.

The University of Arizona Department of Pediatrics has been awarded a $44 million, six-year contract to participate in the National Institutes of Health’s National Children’s Study.

The study – the largest of its kind in the nation – is a major effort to investigate the interaction of genes and the environment on children’s health.

At a briefing on Friday, officials with the federal organization named the UA as one of 36 new and existing study centers that will recruit study volunteers from a total of 72 locations. The UA will recruit participants from Pinal and Apache counties in Arizona.

When fully operational, the study is expected to include 36 to 50 study centers in the planned 105 study locations throughout the United States.

The principal investigator for the UA portion of the study is Fernando Martinez, a pediatrics professor who also directs the UA’s Arizona Respiratory Center.

Lead investigators for the counties are: Sydney Pettygrove, assistant professor in the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health; Francisco Garcia, an associate professor for the UA's obstetrics and gynecology department; Mari Wilhelm, associate professor in the UA's John and Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences.

“I am convinced that this study, if successful, will be remembered for years to come as one of the most important scientific enterprises ever started regarding children’s health,” Martinez said.

“The NCS contract represents a wonderful opportunity for the UA to work collaboratively with communities in Pinal and Apache counties to generally raise awareness about the determinants of children’s health,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the UA has already been awarded a third county and will begin working there in the following year.

“This tremendously important study will lead to discoveries that will improve children’s health in Arizona and the nation,” said Fayez K. Ghishan, who heads the UA's pediatrics department.

“We are very proud of the hard work Dr. Martinez and his team accomplished to make the UA one of the new study centers," said Ghishan, who also director of the UA’s Steele Children’s Research Center.

The National Children’s Study will follow a representative national sample of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21.

Study volunteers will be recruited throughout the United States, from rural, urban and suburban areas; from all income and educational levels and from all racial groups.

The study will investigate factors influencing the development of such conditions as autism, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, birth defects, diabetes, asthma and obesity.

“The study will determine which genetic and environmental factors predispose for or protect against these and other diseases," Martinez said.

"As a result, we will know much better which children should avoid certain exposures to prevent disease," he added, "and in which children other exposures foster wellbeing and promote better health."

At the briefing on Friday, NIH officials said the study will yield health information throughout its 25-year span. Within a few years, the study will provide information on disorders of pregnancy and birth.

Because women will be recruited before they give birth, and in some instances even before they become pregnant, the study is expected to provide insight into the causes and contributors of preterm birth.

More than 500,000 premature infants are born each year in the United States. Infants born prematurely are at risk for early death and a variety of health problems, such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation and learning disabilities. Health-care costs for preterm infants total $26 billion per year.

“This study is unique in its interdisciplinary nature by bringing together expertise from the Department of Pediatrics, the Arizona Respiratory Center, the Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health,” said Dr. Garcia.

“Having been awarded the National Children's Study Center for Arizona is an exciting opportunity for me and the dedicated interdisciplinary team of scientists, local leaders and organizations that will ensure its success,” Dr. Martinez said.