Entering its 10^th year, the ECHO Program is expanding its reach to enhance the health of children across the U.S. In this message, I highlight two ways ECHO is magnifying its impact: helping to translate ECHO research into tangible action via our upcoming Symposium, and broadening access to ECHO data and biospecimens to catalyze their widest use by the research community via ancillary studies. 

First, I hope you will join us for the inaugural ECHO Symposium: Translating Science to Action on September 15, 2025, at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and online. This free, one-day event will bring together scientists, clinicians, policymakers, advocates, community leaders, and more to explore how early-life environmental factors shape child health—and how we can collaboratively move research into action.

Second, I’m pleased to highlight the ECHO Cohort’s new ancillary studies process. Through this process, any eligible researcher, including those outside of ECHO, can access the rich data on the full ECHO Cohort Data Platform. They can also request biospecimens from the ECHO Cohort Biorepository. The rapidly growing biorepository contains a wide range of specimens from our pregnant and child participants, including blood, urine, stool, placenta, nasal swabs, shed teeth, and other samples. These data and specimen resources enable researchers to explore an almost limitless set of important research questions on the causes and prevention of preterm birth, asthma, obesity, autism, and ADHD, to name a few conditions, as well as how to preserve health as children grow and develop. 

A wide range of analyses is possible with an ECHO Cohort ancillary study. Examples include:

• Detecting modifiable early developmental exposures that, if addressed by programs, policies, and practices, could enhance child health outcomes across the life course.
• Exploring pathways to child health outcomes that incorporate state-of-the-art analytical biochemical or statistical methods.
• Examining resilience or susceptibility factors that buffer or amplify the effects of adverse early exposures on child health outcomes.
• Identifying periods of development most sensitive to specific beneficial or detrimental exposures to inform new strategies to promote child health.
• Measuring the effects of natural experiments or new health innovations on child health outcomes.

Visit the ancillary studies page to get started.

Matthew Gillman, MD, SM

Director of the ECHO Program

Babies born to mothers potentially exposed to low levels of arsenic in public drinking water—even at levels below the federal safety standard—were more likely to be born preterm, with lower birthweight, or be smaller than expected.

Key takeaways:



• Potential arsenic exposure during pregnancy—even at levels below the current federal safety standard—may be linked to adverse birth outcomes.
• Mothers exposed to higher levels of arsenic in public drinking water were more likely to have babies born with low birthweight or smaller than expected for the number of weeks of pregnancy.
• These patterns were seen across several racial and ethnic groups, including White, Black, and Hispanic/Latino families. Similar risks were also observed among babies born to American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander parents.
• Babies born to Black parents faced higher risks of being born early, having low birthweight, or being smaller than expected.

Join us for the next monthly webinar

On August 13, at 1 p.m., Maxwell Mansolf, PhD, of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, will present findings from a study using data from over 3,500 children in the ECHO Cohort to examine the complex relationships between child eating behaviors and parental feeding practices.

June

Adherence to U.S. dietary guidelines during pregnancy and chemical exposures

In June, Diana Pacyga, MS, PhD, of UNC Chapel Hill, presented "Does adherence to U.S. dietary guidelines during pregnancy reduce exposure to over 50 contemporary and understudied chemicals?"