NIH grant: AHEAD: Adolescent Health and the EArly-life Dietary Exposome: Developing a Metabolomics-based Index of Healthy Eating to predict children's health trajectories (1R21DE036066-01)

retained text

NIH grant 1R21DE036066-01: AHEAD: Adolescent Health and the EArly-life Dietary Exposome: Developing a Metabolomics-based Index of Healthy Eating to predict children's health trajectories
Institute: {'code': 'DE', 'abbreviation': 'NIDCR', 'name': 'National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research', 'admin_org_id': '12500070', 'admin_funding_url': ''}. PI: Christie Lauren Custodio-Lumsden. Award: $471123.
Start: 2026-08-01T00:00:00.
PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
Childhood is a sensitive developmental window, during which diet and environmental exposures significantly
impact health. Diet is a modifiable determinant of many non-communicable diseases, including dental caries,
obesity and diabetes. These highly prevalent and consequential diseases – and the dietary behaviors driving
them – are often established in childhood and persist throughout adulthood. The influence of environmental
and dietary exposures on oral and systemic health trajectories is underexplored. Characterization of diet
quality and its biological signatures during childhood remains limited. The early life exposome (totality of non-
genetic, environmental, dietary, psychosocial exposures) plays a critical role in shaping health, yet biologic
mechanisms linking exposures to children’s health trajectories are poorly understood. There is a gap in
knowledge of underlying pathways through which early life diet influences lifelong health. Research is needed
to identify common risk/protective factors underlying oral and systemic diseases and to improve understanding
of early-life exposures that determine children’s health trajectories. The objective of AHEAD (Adolescent
Health and the EArly-life Dietary Exposome: Developing a metabolomics-based index of healthy eating to
predict children’s oral and systemic health trajectories) is to characterize the quality and cariogenicity of
children's diets and develop metablomics-based indices of (un)healthy eating, and to explore their ability to
predict phenotypic health in adolescence. AHEAD leverages existing data from Columbia Center for Children’s
Environmental Health (CCCEH), part of the NIH-funded Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes
(ECHO) collaborative, including dietary, biospecimen, anthropometric, and medical/dental health data. AHEAD
will be the first study to apply exposomics/metabolomics to investigate oral and systemic health in ECHO. We
aim to: (1) Characterize childhood dietary quality and cariogenicity in 200 CCCEH children (5<10 years)
using Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and sugary beverage/snack consumption frequency; and (2) Develop
(un)healthy plasma metabolomics indices by identifying associations between diet and metabolomic
profiles and predict association between (un)healthy metabolomics indices and systemic and oral
health in adolescence (11<17 years) (BMI/age, blood pressure, pain, decay, bleeding gums). Data-driven
statistical methods will identify metabolomic signatures associated with both HEI and cariogenicity to generate
indices reflecting (un)healthy dietary exposures. Innovatively applying exposomics to examine early-life drivers
of health trajectories holds potential to yield important insights that may revolutionize our understanding of how
diet impacts health. Findings will advance knowledge of diet-related metabolomic signatures and their
predictive value for health. AHEAD will lay the foundation for identifying common biologic pathways linking diet
with oral and systemic health to inform efficacious dietary interventions to promote health.

document fetched 2026-08-08 06:50