NICHES Project Areas: Different Approaches, Same Mission
The NICHES Children Center is divided into four projects, all which concentrate on different areas of research in regards to prenatal environmental smoke exposure and it’s effects on neurodevelopment.
Click the links for each project to learn more about what makes the research in each area unique, and how they all integrate for a comprehensive assessment of the effects of environmental tobacco smoke on ADHD.
Project 1 – The objective of Project 1 is to evaluate the associations of environmental tobacco smoke exposure on cognitive and neurobehavioral outcomes across early development, and to examine the role of exposure-induced DNA methylation changes on these outcomes in children from a previous study.
Project 2 – Project 2 utilizes in vivo (rat) and in vitro (neuronal cell culture) models to determine how early life environmental tobacco smoke exposure impacts neuronal differentiation, neural circuit formation and behavioral development resulting in persisting cognitive and emotional dysfunction.
Project 3 – This project’s objective is to determine if epigenetics is, in part, a mechanism linking environmental tobacco smoke exposure in early life to ADHD-associated phenotypes.
Community Outreach – The Community Outreach and Translation Core is responsible for translating the research ideas being addressed in NICHES and the findings to the community, with an emphasis on education about the harmful effects of environmental tobacco smoke during pregnancy and on smoking prevention among teens.
