PHILADELPHIA (April 29, 2020) — Two teams of researchers, one from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the other from Penn and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), were each awarded $525,000 in funding to explore emerging ideas regarding the role of inflammation in disease.
The number of overweight or obese infants and young children, from birth to five years, increased from 32 million globally in 1990 to 41 million in 2016. A similar prevalence is observed in older children and adolescents. The vast majority of overweight or obese children live in developing countries or belong to underprivileged communities.
One team of researchers, led by Jorge Henao-Mejia, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Sarah Henrickson, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Pediatrics, and Golnaz Vahedi, PhD, an assistant professor of Genetics, plans to use the award to investigate the impacts of childhood obesity on immune function. Henao-Mejia is also affiliated with the Department of Pathology at CHOP, and Henrickson is an attending physician of Allergy and Immunology at CHOP.
"This award will allow us to map the impact of obesity in the immune system in children and the long-term immunological consequences of this disorder," Henao-Mejia said. "As inflammation plays a critical role in the majority of obesity associated diseases, our research will be the first step to elucidate alterations in the immune system that contribute to disease progression in obese children."
Another team, led by Kellie Ann Jurado, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology, Monica Mainigi, MD, an assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Dan Donegeun Huh, PhD, an associate professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, plans to explore how maternal and fetal cells respond to specific inflammatory signals and analyze the network of placental cells and immune cells that impact pregnancy outcomes in chronic inflammatory diseases.
The grant partners three investigators with diverse expertise — an experimental immunobiologist, a reproductive and infertility clinician-scientist, and a bioengineer who specializes in biometric technology to investigate the role of the maternal inflammation on early pregnancy establishment.
"We know that communication between the mother and the fetus's immune system is critical in pregnancy," Mainigi said. "Results from this study will provide insight into immunological mechanisms that govern pregnancy, an understanding essential for proper diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infertility and pregnancy complications."
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative awarded grants to 29 total teams of researchers around the world to study how inflammation influences disease. View the full list of grantees.
