Scientific Advances from Sharing URECA Data in Collaborative Analyses

The NIH-sponsored Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma (URECA) study of families in low-income, urban neighborhoods has provided important insights in this population but has a limited capacity to investigate risk factors across broader geographic and sociodemographic settings. To overcome this shortcoming, URECA investigators have shared data with multiple NIH-sponsored birth cohorts and investigators, including the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes program and the Children's Allergy and Asthma Data Repository. We collaboratively developed methods, including a novel array to measure DNA methylation at CpG sites implicated in asthma, and geospatial estimates of exposure to air pollution, social conditions, and neighborhood characteristics based on residential address. Applying these tools to pooled datasets demonstrated associations between increased asthma incidence and birth in low-income, historically redlined census tracts, residence in low-food-access census tracts, identifying as African American or Caribbean-Hispanic American, and higher air pollution. Distinct asthma phenotypes based on longitudinal patterns of clinical features were associated with specific genetic polymorphisms. Studies of nasal cells identified patterns of gene expression and nasal epithelial DNAm signatures associated with specific asthma and allergy phenotypes. These collaborative projects have advanced our understanding of childhood asthma and established an investigative culture of data sharing, trust, and cooperation.