There has been increasing research attention to the impact of in utero exposures to specific perinatal risk factors and their potential impact on diseases later in life. One of these is hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), a perinatal condition which affects up to 10% of pregnancies globally. Current evidence shows that HDP are associated with an increased risk of offspring cardiovascular, immune, metabolic disorders in later life. HDP are also responsible for various adverse perinatal outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight and intrauterine growth restriction, which are known risk factors for numerous mental health morbidities. In addition, HDP may also affect brain development via utero-placental vascular insufficiency and fetal malnutrition and lead to subsequent neurobehavioral difficulties. A lot of research has been conducted on the associations between HDP and cognitive functioning in offspring, however, evidence on the effect of intrauterine exposure to HDP on offspring mental and behavioural disorders is not well-established.
Two systematic reviews conducted by this team, one currently under review and the other one accepted by the British Journal of Psychiatry have shown that HDP had a negative impact for a range mental or behavioural disorders. Our finding showed that preeclampsia was associated with increased risk of offspring schizophrenia. The risk of Autism spectrum disorder was also 32% higher in offspring who had intrauterine exposure to preeclampsia as compared to those non-exposed. However, we found inconclusive finding on the effect of HDP and other mental and behavioural disorders, suggesting the need of further studies to progress this area of research. Following on from these findings, this PhD project aims to add to the existing evidence in a meaningful way by conducting a high quality, large sample, birth cohort study.

Sleep matters to those who care for young children. The duration and timing of sleep can have a profound effect on a young child’s everyday behaviour, learning and health and also has a significant impact on the routines and wellbeing of the adults who provide his or her care. Yet there is surprisingly little evidence regarding the developmental function of early sleep patterns. Current understanding of the processes underpinning normative transition in sleep patterns, the prevalence of specific sleep phenotypes and persistence in sleep patterns across time is limited. This study will utilise genetic and environmental data, alongside longitudinal sleep data to examine the prevalence, persistence and developmental significance of childhood sleep phenotypes.

This knowledge will inform clinical, public health and educational policy and practice where management of sleep is an issue of controversy and also inform parenting practice where early child sleep behaviours can have a major impact on family functioning, parent well-being and child development.

Previous research has shown detrimental offspring outcomes for children prenatally exposed to alcohol. However, uncertainty remains as to whether these negative offspring outcomes are due to the intrauterine environment, or environmental influences after birth, for example parental lifetime drinking. Further investigation is required to assess the impact of parental alcohol use on offspring outcomes. The research that has been previously conducted in this area has focused on academic outcomes, with less focus on the influence maternal and partner drinking may have on offspring mental health.
In addition, valid reports of alcohol use may be affected by under-reporting. Using parental methylation markers that are predictive of alcohol use, could be a more biologically valid method for assessing alcohol consumption. These methylation-based biomarkers were developed by Liu et al (2018) and are currently being validated by co-applicants (LZ) in ALSPAC. The proposed study will use such biomarkers to assess if this produces a stronger signal, in comparison to self-reported alcohol use.

We are writing to all the birth cohorts in Europethat we know have an interest in environment and health to ask them to participate in this coordinating action (list attached). We have already contacted quite a number of them and leaders in various projects such as GA2LEN, ESCAPE, HIWATE and they have agreed to participate. We would like you to read the text below and let us know if you are interested in taking part in this proposal. We need an answer very soon since the deadline for submission is 25 February. Besides extracting currently available information, we also hope to generate new information (but are limited to what can be done within a coordinating action and available funding) and we have proposed a number of ideas, but other ideas are welcome. Please indicate if you are interested in any asap (and correct any incorrect information), and whether you are willing to take the lead of any of the ideas/WPs.

Individuals exposed prenatally to cigarette smoke tend to have lower birthweight and have higher risks for a variety of detrimental health outcomes later in life. Cigarette smoke exposure is also associated with DNA methylation changes at gene GFI1, and recent evidence suggests that these changes may play a role in the lower birthweight of exposed infants. We would like to determine if there is evidence that these DNA methylation changes may also play a role in risk factors for other health outcomes of prenatal cigarette smoke exposure. We would specifically like to investigate factors related to cardiovascular and metabolic health.

This project looks to understand how genetic predisposition to coronary heart disease is manifest in early life. The idea here is that although young people have not yet presented with adult/mature disease, there may be metabolic signatures of later life disease risk which differ by genetic factors and are which mark carriers of these genotypes as different. Importantly, showing differences in metabolic profile at earlier ages may lead to the ability to target and modify these factors to aid later life disease risk.

Learning disabilities are common disorders characterized by unexpected difficulty with a specific mode of learning in the context of adequate intelligence and academic opportunity. The high prevalence of these disorders in the general population represents a costly burden to the educational system and affected individual are often at risk for long-term adverse psychological and socioeconomic outcomes. Intervention programs work, but are more effective when tailored to individuals and administered earlier in life. The pre-symptomatic detection of individual who are at risk of developing learning disabilities, and who are more likely to benefit from early intervention, is therefore an important diagnostic opportunity with major economic and societal implications. The objective of this project is to evaluate the diagnostic performance and predictive value of genetic variants associated with learning disabilities in the ALSPAC cohort.