Early Life Exposures Program

Perinatal Research Advisory and Facilitation Process

Pregnant individuals, their fetuses and newborn infants, especially preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units, represent a unique and limited population of families who would like to participate in clinical research. There is considerable potential for competition among studies that begin at these unique stages of the life cycle, which is a burden to studies recruiting from these limited subject populations.

• Recruitment of pregnant patients at UCHealth or Children’s Hospital
  
• Recruitment of patients in the postpartum period (up to 12 weeks postpartum)
  
• Infants <60 days of age admitted to an inpatient unit at UCHealth or Children’s Hospital
• Collection of placenta, umbilical cord or cord blood samples

Vision

All pregnant patients and families with a neonate receiving care through UCH and/or CHCO will have an opportunity to participate in research.

All pregnant patients and families with a neonate will be approached about research in a way that is coordinated, respectful, and integrated into a high-quality care experience at UCH and/or CHCO. 

All perinatal investigators on the AMC will conduct high-caliber translational science in a collaborative, coordinated, and mutually respectful manner.

Process

Childhood Research

We aim to fundamentally improve the health of children in our region, the nation and across the globe. For many years, the CU Anschutz Medical Campus Department of Pediatrics has been one of the highest NIH-funded pediatric departments. Examples of our expertise and research excellence include cystic fibrosis, diabetes, childhood cancer, HIV and AIDS, obesity and metabolic syndrome, global health, genetics and metabolism, micronutrient nutrition, liver diseases, neurologic disorders, autism and developmental disorders.

Children's Hospital Colorado CTRC

The CTRC at Children's Hospital Colorado  provides support for clinical and translational research in children. We serve a broad range of protocols including those that require a higher acuity of care, an overnight stay or consecutive visits.

The CTRC staff at Children's is a critical resource for patients, families and investigators.

Additional Resources

Department of Pediatrics

Investigator Resources from the Research Institute

Developmental Origins/Life Course Research

Adaptations to adverse events in very early development often predict risk for disease onset that occurs years to decades later. There is increasing evidence that such adaptations are associated with risk for diseases as diverse as autism, obesity, diabetes, schizophrenia, cancer, hypertension, asthma, myocardial infarction and even Alzheimer’s. Because of the years to decades separation between cause and effect, mechanistic and interventional research into this area has been difficult in humans. However, interventions very early in development are likely to be milder, cheaper and less toxic than interventions later in life. Recent emphasis on mechanisms of programming has provided a rational basis for the observation that adaptations to adverse early life events can produce long lasting, even permanent changes in the structure and function of an individual.

In humans, longitudinal studies have the potential to involve many investigators from different disciplines to learn how adverse conditions and their prevention or improvement at an earlier stage in life contribute to health and disease at later stages of life. There also is great benefit in studying the same condition at different points in the lifespan by individuals who focus on specific stages of life but now collaborate in a unique, “at the same time,” approach. Collectively, such approaches can show how preemption of diseases and prevention of their later life consequences can improve health and reduce the otherwise exponential increase in the burden of disease and its economic impact, on individuals and on society, that occur over the lifespan. Many faculty in the CCTSI and across our entire institution are involved in such research.