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�԰����� is one of three San Antonio institutions to be awarded a $150,000 Collaborative Research Grant from the San Antonio Medical Foundation to determine the effects that overweight or diabetic mothers have on the body composition of their babies.

Jonathan King, professor and chair of biology at �԰����� and one of the principal investigators of the project, called it a “significant grant because it’s an important problem. Obesity and diabetes are pressing community health issues.”

During the 2016-17 academic year, as many as 10 �԰����� students will be trained for clinical research for the study, to be conducted with doctors, dieticians, nurses, and research technicians at the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA).

The team will study the body composition and epigenetic code of infants related to metabolic differences and diabetes. Their work will involve community outreach, dietary education, and risk reduction for moms and babies with one or more medical conditions such as diabetes and obesity.

King said he has collaborated for several years with the other principal investigators, Dr. Nicholas Carr at the San Antonio Military Medical Center and Dr. Cynthia Blanco from UTHSCSA. Both physicians are neonatologists with an interest in the development of healthy babies whose mothers might be diabetic.

During the one-year grant period, researchers will examine infant body composition at birth, at two months, and six months later, King said, adding that a non-invasive scanning device will be used to look at muscle and fat composition as a predictor of diabetes. About 50 babies and their families will be included in the study, including healthy-weight moms, diabetic moms, and obese moms.

�԰����� students will focus on developing educational materials for the mothers and their families, King said. As interns on the project, �԰����� undergraduates will be able to assist dietitians in clinic to encourage mothers to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Students also will contribute to epigenetic analysis studies of blood collected from the umbilical cords of babies after they are born. King is exploring whether genes are “read” differently in moms who are overweight/diabetic in comparison to healthy weight moms. As the project develops, students may also be involved with outreach to families on behalf of dietitians. Students in the internship are undergraduates who may be considering careers in the health professions including dietitians or clinical researchers, King said.

Several expressed enthusiasm for the project, calling it a way to implement knowledge learned in class with a concrete action plan. “It’s good to have that extra step in the learning process,” said Addison White, a junior from Allen, Texas.

“We are working in the shadow of a doctor but we are also working with the community,” said Lorenzo Garza, a junior from Brownsville, Texas. “We are part of an actual project that’s helping people.”

Katherine Wilks, a senior from San Antonio, said being part of a medical study is valuable “now because I don’t know how many of us at our educational level and at our age are able to say we are part of this study and we contributed to it. I’m excited to be a part of this study.”

The grant, known as the Maternal Fetal Environment Alters Infantile Body Composition and Epigenetics, is one of two projects funded recently by the Medical Foundation. The other team of researchers is from Southwest Research Institute, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and the U.S. Army Institute for Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston. That group will seek to develop a regenerative medicine-based approach to treat chronic, non-healing skin wounds such as diabetic ulcers, which occur at double the national average in San Antonio. The goal is to develop a healthcare product that can effectively treat such wounds, as well as regular skin wounds resulting from surgery, other diseases and injuries like burns.  

The foundation received a number of collaborative proposals, according to Stephanie Chandler, chair of the Collaborative Grant Selection Committee. “These two proposals, each addressing different diabetes issues which are unfortunately so common in San Antonio, rose to the top,” she said. “The Medical Foundation’s new grant program is intended to explore new areas that target special research and patient care strengths already present in the San Antonio area.”