Elucidation and Validation of the role of Transporters in the Placenta, Lactating Mammary Gland, Developing Gut, and Blood Brain Barrier
This grant supports research to understand how transporters in the placenta, mammary gland, gut, and blood-brain barrier affect maternal, fetal, and child exposure to nutrients, drugs, and chemicals during development.
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates (Anticipated): October 2027 (Full application deadline, projected)
Funding Amounts: Estimated total program funding: $3,000,000; typical award and duration not specified.
Summary: Supports mechanistic research on transporter function and biotransformation in the placenta, lactating mammary gland, developing gut, and blood-brain barrier to advance perinatal health.
Key Information: This is a forecasted opportunity; deadlines and details may change.
Description
This anticipated NIH opportunity, led by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, will fund a second phase of the Transporter Elucidation Network (TEN). The initiative aims to develop and validate multi-barrier transport network frameworks that clarify how transporters and local biotransformation regulate maternal, fetal, and child exposure to nutrients, metabolites, medications, supplements, microbiome-derived products, and environmental chemicals. Building on prior organ-focused models and datasets, this phase will create standards, resources, and prototype multi-compartment approaches encompassing the maternal gut, placenta, lactating mammary epithelium, infant gut, and blood-brain barrier. The goal is to enable a mechanistic understanding of transporter function, polarity, kinetics, and transformation capacity relevant to pregnancy, lactation, infant nutrition, pediatric pharmacology, and neurodevelopment, while providing resources for integrated studies and workforce development in perinatal transporter research.
