10th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) Society

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases (DOHaD) hypothesis, which posits that early-life events or exposures determine the health outcomes across the life span, is foundational to the U.S. DOHaD Society. The U.S. DOHaD Society has held annual meetings since its inception in 2016. These meetings bring together investigators from a wide array of disciplines who otherwise may not be likely to interact. Our membership includes clinicians, scientists and trainees across a wide array of specialties including developmental biology, nutrition, environmental toxicology, cancer, stress, and endocrinology. Such individuals span institutions geographically across the U.S. including Universities, companies/corporations, and government agencies (NIH, EPA, NIEHS). The annual meeting provides a critical opportunity for members to share knowledge and recent advancements on how environmental toxicants, nutrients, pharmaceutical agents, pathogens, gut microbiota, stress, and emerging factors influence developing fetuses and newborns, and thereby contribute to their health and disease across the life span. Presentations and discussions explore how environmental factors may lead to harmful effects in subsequent generations. The major goals of the U.S. DOHaD Society's annual meeting are to foster multidisciplinary interactions, promote collaborations on applicable scientific and clinical topics, and provide opportunity for trainees (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical residents/fellows, and junior faculty) to interact with world-renown experts to facilitate the development of future scientists and career opportunities in the field. The past eight conferences have been enormously successful, with significant growth in membership and attendance during each subsequent meeting. Such successes provide impetus for continued and permanent annual meetings. The 10th will be held at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC) and the theme will be “The Exposome and DOHaD Science”. In short, the strength of the U.S. DOHaD Society lies in its ability to integrate an impressive range of science among individuals in varying levels of their education and careers.