Perinatal signatures of exposure-induced health outcomes: Opportunities for insights from the Indian sub-continent

The perinatal period represents a window of heightened vulnerability to environmental exposures that can disrupt the health trajectory of the developing fetus. Research to date on this paradigm is vigorously pursued in high-income country settings. However, India offers a distinct context with a population in epidemiologic transition experiencing unique sources of exposures. The translatability of findings reported to date is, therefore, unclear. This talk will highlight findings across domestic and international cohorts leveraging genomic profiles of the placenta to gain insight into molecular pathways that convey the impact of in utero exposures on early life health effects, and it will close with a discussion on the state of the literature on exposure effects reported specifically in Indian perinatal populations.