The chemical exposoMe of pregnAnt womeN with GestatiOnal diabetes mellitus

There is a lack of knowledge on the multitude of chemicals that we are exposed to, and even less is known about the exposure during pregnancy, the most critical window for adverse health effects on both mother and offspring.

In turn, the prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) has incredibly increased during the last decades and it is now diagnosed in up to 18% of the pregnancies.

In this context, I propose the project “The Chemical Exposome of Pregnant Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (MANGO)” to be co-supervised by Dr. Navas-Acien and Prof. Gary Miller at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health (USA, Third Country for the outgoing phase), and by Prof. Domingo at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV, Spain, beneficiary institution and host for the incoming phase).

The main scientific goals of MANGO are: (1) to determine the occurrence of non-target chemicals in biological samples of 400 pregnant women; (2) to evaluate the association between the exposure to chemicals and clinical data, exploring the effect modification by sociodemographic, dietary and lifestyle factors; (3) to implement a pilot prevention programme to minimize the exposure to hazardous chemicals during pregnancy.

These objectives will be tackled by integrating last advances in high-resolution mass spectrometry (WP1), mathematical models (WP2) and risk assessment and prevention strategies (WP3).

MANGO will leverage biological samples of Diabetes and Pregnancy Cohort from Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili/Hospital Universitari Joan XXIII (IISPV/HJXXIII, associated partner) and will return the knowledge to Europe by implementing the first pilot programme to increase the awareness of the exposure to hazardous chemicals.

Through this MSCA-PF-GF, my training in environmental epidemiology in USA would capitalize upon my skills on non-target chemical analysis (MSCA cofund in INSULIN Tecniospring), facilitating the start of a new research line and a track-tenure at URV