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SUMMARY:Neurodevelopmental risk assessment in the COVID-19 Mother Baby Out
 comes (COMBO) Initiative at Columbia University - Dr. Dani Dumitriu\, Colu
 mbia University Iriving Medical Center
DTSTART:20220613T143000Z
DTEND:20220613T153000Z
UID:TALK175595@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Elizabeth Weir
DESCRIPTION:Abstract:\n\nFetal exposure to perturbation of the intrauterin
 e environment is implicated in altered brain development and longterm offs
 pring vulnerability for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric sequalae. Globa
 lly\, around 300 million infants have been born since the onset of the COV
 ID-19 pandemic\, with a substantive proportion exposed to maternal SARS-Co
 V-2 infection during pregnancy. Therefore\, there have been global calls t
 o action urging the evaluation of the neurodevelopment of infants born dur
 ing this crisis. Efforts focus on assessing two hypothesized pathways: dir
 ect effects mediated through viral infection (either via vertical transmis
 sion or via maternal immune activation) or indirect effects mediated throu
 gh maternal stress during pregnancy. In this talk\, I will detail our effo
 rts to uncover the independent and/or interactive effects of these two mec
 hanisms on infant neurodevelopment in our COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcomes (C
 OMBO) Initiative (www.ps.columbia.edu/COMBO)\, spearheaded at Columbia Uni
 versity in New York City in the spring of 2020. To date\, our data shows s
 ubtle but significant effects on the neurodevelopment of infants born duri
 ng the pandemic do exist\, and that these effects are more likely to be at
 tributable to maternal stress. In a recent published report (Shuffrey et a
 l\, JAMA Pediatrics\, 2022)\, we showed no differences exist in the neurod
 evelopmental scores of 6 month old infants with and without fetal exposure
  to maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection as measured by maternal report on the Ag
 es and Stages Questionnaire 3rd Ed (ASQ-3)\, but the combined pandemic-bor
 n cohort has slightly lower scores on motor and social skills compared to 
 a cohort born at the same institution in the preceding 3 years prior to th
 e pandemic. I will also present unpublished follow up data supporting the 
 lack of an effect of maternal viral infection in a novel observational ass
 essment conducted via Zoom at 6-12 months of age\, as well as data showing
  that as the pandemic progresses\, there is a promising normalization of t
 he initial effects observed in infants that were in utero during the first
  wave in the spring of 2020. \n\nBio:\n\nDani Dumitriu\, MD\, PhD\, is a p
 ediatrician and neuroscientist at Columbia University Irving Medical Cente
 r. She completed her physician-scientist training\, pediatric residency\, 
 and a pediatric environmental health fellowship at the Icahn School of Med
 icine at Mount Sinai and was the first female to secure R01-level independ
 ent funding from the NIH during clinical training.  She currently spends 2
 0% time as a hospitalist in the Well Baby Nursery and 80% time conducting 
 research into the mechanism of emotional connection and resilience across 
 species and investigational scales in her dual roles as Principal Investig
 ator of the Developmental Origins of Resilience (DOOR) lab and as the newl
 y appointed Director of the Nurture Science Program. Her most recent resea
 rch focus has been to investigate the role of the COVID-19 pandemic on the
  generation born during these uncertain and changing times\, and she is th
 e founder and Chair of Columbia University's COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcomes
  (COMBO) Initiative. \n
LOCATION:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85130861934?pwd=c1l1czdNSFVaUzdtRDRPSlU
 3Q0VmZz09
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