Pregnancy has known associated risks to both the individual carrying the pregnancy and the fetus. Some individuals are more likely to develop certain health problems, such as the heart dilating or blood pressure being too high, during pregnancy. There are also environmental exposures, such as medications, that are known to impact some pregnant individuals and their fetuses. Our research would like to use UK BioBank data to better understand how genetic differences among pregnant individuals impact their risk for developing pregnancy-related health problems and their risk for medication exposure-related affects to the pregnancy and fetus.
Specifically, our research questions are addressed with two aims: 1. Examine how genetic differences affect pregnant individuals’ and their fetuses’ risk for developing specific diseases. 2. Examine how genetic differences affect pregnant individuals’ and their fetuses’ risk for having un-wanted outcomes of medication exposure. Both aims will include the use previously studied genetic risk factors, such as known disease PRSs and known pharmacogenomic variants, to evaluate their impact on the understudied pregnancy and fetal populations. When necessary new genetic analyses will also be completed to improve our understanding of previously understudied pregnancy-related outcomes.
This project will involve the work of several scientists approximately over the next three years. A thorough investigation will have an immense impact on pregnancy related care. Pregnancy inducing diseases and medication exposure during pregnancy are common and understudied. Results from this research could allow for better prediction, care, and prevention of these pregnancy related diseases, which also affect all offspring.