Having received a seven-year, $51 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, biomedical scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are launching a research platform devoted to the molecular underpinnings of early childhood determinants of health.
The project, called ELVIS, or, less connotatively, the ECHO Laboratory core at Vanderbilt for Integrated Sample biobanking and processing, is part of an expansion of ECHO, the NIH’s multi-center Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes program, which launched in 2016 with an initial $157 million in funding, including to teams at VUMC.
Under ELVIS, biospecimens collected around the country from participants in ECHO’s long-term research cohorts will arrive for biobanking and analysis at VUMC, and data from the ensuing molecular assays will flow to ECHO-qualified researchers everywhere via a secure web portal.
ECHO’s core biospecimens include DNA from the biological parents; pregnant participants’ blood, urine, hair, and toenails; and children’s DNA, blood, urine, hair, toenails, and shed teeth.
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