EXPRESS

Duration

01/01/2026-31/12/2028

Coordinator

ISGlobal

Funded by

ISCIII-Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS)

Pregnancy is a critical period for disease prevention, for both mother and child. Pregnant women are exposed to thousands of man-made environmental chemicals, but their impacts on pregnancy, maternal and child cardiometabolic health are poorly characterized, especially regarding chemicals of recent use, mixtures, and inflammatory mechanisms.

The EXPRESS project uses a novel exposome approach to evaluate the impact of pregnancy exposure to mixtures of chemical pollutants on cardiometabolic health of the mother during and after pregnancy, and of the child up to 8 years of age.

Our overarching goal is to provide new knowledge and use this to inform more effective policies and guidelines to protect maternal and child health. For this, we leverage a unique pregnancy cohort in Barcelona that has already collected data on exposure to a wide range of chemical pollutants (the “chemical exposome” measured through advanced targeted and non-targeted approaches in repeated biosamples) and in-depth data on pregnancy health outcomes, and is currently collecting data on maternal and child cardiometabolic health outcomes, 4-5 years after birth.

The EXPRESS project will add inflammatory proteomics data during pregnancy and will collect extensive new data on cardiometabolic health in the children at age 7-8 years. A qualitative, participatory approach will be used to evaluate the needs and experiences of mothers and healthcare professionals related to guidelines to avoid toxic chemicals, resulting in improved recommendations and reduced exposure to toxic chemicals in pregnancy. 

Total Funding

265.625€