The Division of Population Health Research (DiPHR) - Office of the Director

As a perinatal epidemiologist, Una Grewal has been at the forefront of many novel, large-scale research initiatives, including in the roles of Co-Principal Investigator for the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies and Principal Investigator for the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies: Dietary Patterns during Pregnancy component. Grewal is also active as a collaborator on the NICHD Fetal Growth 3D Study, which relies on ultrasound images collected as a part of the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies to establish standards for fetal body composition and organ volumes. Among the noteworthy findings published from this program of research within the last year are the following:

1. Fetal growth patterns and timing of maximal growth for 3-dimensional lean and fat measures, limb and organ volumes differed from patterns revealed by traditional 2-dimensional growth measures, suggesting these parameters reflect unique facets of fetal growth [Reference 1].
2. Body composition differed in fetuses of pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus, including larger arm and abdominal measures across the second and third trimesters [Reference 2].
3. The alternate Mediterranean diet and alternate Healthy Eating Index scores were positively associated with plasma polychlorinated biphenyls and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl exposure during pregnancy, findings that suggest optimizing the benefits of a healthy diet requires concerted regulatory efforts aimed at lowering environmental chemical exposure [Reference 3].
4. Grewal is leading the establishment of a Nutrition Core within the Division. The aims of the Nutrition Core are to leverage existing DiPHR cohorts and to expand the Division’s portfolio on nutrition, one of the major cross-cutting themes enumerated in NICHD’s 2020 Strategic Plan. Dr. Grewal’s ambition is that the integration of data from the different cohorts will permit examination of the contributions of nutrition to health outcomes across the lifespan.

Una Grewal is leading a new initiative within the Division: creating a novel database for climate-change research. The aims of the climate-change project are to integrate, harmonize, and standardize data across four pre-conception cohorts in the Division, as well as to incorporate various climate indicators from publicly available datasets compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The purpose of the resulting database will be to investigate spatiotemporal changes in human fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth in the U.S. that are associated with climate change. Currently, her team is analyzing data from this database to evaluate acute and chronic exposure to extreme temperatures and the risk of preterm birth.