Maternal Childhood Maltreatment-Influenced Prenatal Programming of Early Brain-Behavior and Risk for Future Psychopathology

The R00 Pathway to Independence Award will establish the applicant's independent research program as a tenure track faculty member in the Departments of Psychiatry and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science (OBGYN) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) framework is supported by a robust literature that provides evidence for the role of environmental exposures in shaping brain and behavior development through prenatal programming. Maternal childhood maltreatment has been associated with both maternal prenatal mental health and infant emotion regulation outcomes; however, most known transmission pathways are behavioral, with limited evidence for biological transmission. Well-established behavioral pathways are through maternal mental health and parenting sensitivity influencing infant emotion regulation and mother-infant interactions. Emerging evidence supports maternal childhood maltreatment effects on infant outcomes through biological pathways such as in utero programming of brain development. Despite the Project Number: 4R00HD110939-03 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) | Principal Investigator: Vanessa Babineau | Institution: ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI, NEW YORK, NY | Award Amount: $249,000 | Activity Code: R00 | Study Section: NSS View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/4R00HD11093903