USA: New York City, COMBO Cohort study

Project Title: Effects of in-utero Sars-CoV-2 Exposure on Infant Growth in the Covid-19 Mother Baby Outcomes (COMBO) Cohort

Project Description: SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, remains a public health crisis worldwide, with cases exceeding 170 million and ongoing spread. The impact on the health of in utero exposed infants remains unknown. 30 exposed and 30 unexposed infants born during spring 2020, at the height of the pandemic in NYC, and already enrolled in COMBO will be enrolled in this study and followed through 36-48 months of life, with growth measures prior to enrollment obtained retrospectively from chart review. In addition to traditional measures of anthropometric growth, the proposed study will use air plethysmography (Bodpod) to provide highly detailed information on the effects of prenatal SARS-CoV-2 exposure on total lean and total fat mass. It will correlate these measures with biomarkers of growth (IGF-1, leptin, and α-klotho) to explore mechanisms of growth regulation in the condition of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The student would be involved with the recruitment of patients and obtaining consent, assisting in obtaining physical measurements of patients and assisting in getting the body composition measures, collating data, and providing preliminary analysis of data. 

Student Participation: In person

Number of students: 1