2022 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Next Gen Pregnancy Initiative Grant Awarded to UPMC Children's Nephrologist
June 16, 2022
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Division of Pediatric Nephrology congratulates Jacqueline Ho, MD, for receiving a 2022 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Next Gen Pregnancy Initiative Grant.
Dr. Ho is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Ho is the director of the Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship and co-director of the Pediatric Scientist Development Program.
Dr. Ho’s Next Gen Pregnancy Initiative grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund is a four-year, $500,000 award designed to support novel investigations into healthy and adverse pregnancy outcomes using creative basic and translational science approaches.
About Dr. Ho’s Grant Research
Dr. Ho’s grant will explore basic science mechanistic processes that may be responsible for or contribute to why children born to mothers with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes are at a higher risk for kidney disease. Because the incidence of diabetes is increasing globally, more women experience diabetes during pregnancy, which can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Dr. Ho’s new study will use a mouse model that will allow experiments to be conducted in both the mother and offspring to assess how in utero exposure to diabetes influences DNA methylation, and consequently how these DNA changes affect nephron formation in the kidney. Beyond the mechanistic processes involved, the study may allow for the identification of diagnostic biomarkers signaling a risk for high blood pressure and kidney disease in children who are born to mothers with diabetes, as well as potential targets for therapies to protect the kidney and nephron formation in the developing offspring.
Read the press release and learn more about Dr. Ho’s Burroughs Wellcome Fund grants.
Learn more about Dr. Ho and the Division of Pediatric Nephrology at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
