The UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi-CA) is a multi-year research enterprise funded by Marc and Lynn Benioff. The mission at PTBI-CA is to eliminate racial disparities in preterm birth and improve health outcomes for babies born too soon through research, partnerships, and education grounded in community wisdom. The PTBi-CA lives at the intersection of research, community partnerships, and education to create positive change for black and brown families. The PTBi-CA is a leading partner on several HOPE Consortium studies, especially with respect investigations related to preterm birth and complications of prematurity. This includes partnering on the HOPE COVID-19, the California Prediction of Poor Outcomes of Pregnancy (CPPOP), and the PRedicting Maturity, MOrtality and Morbidity in PreTerm Newborns (PROMPT) studies, as well as serving as a collaborating entity with the Cancer and Pregnancy Outcomes study. The PI of PTBi-CA, Dr. Larry Rand, MD, is a Primary Founder of the HOPE Consortium. Dr. Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, Director of Discovery and Precision Health for PTBI-CA, is also a Primary Founder and Lead of the HOPE Consortium. She is PI of the HOPE COVID-19 study, of the CPPOP study and, with Drs. Kelli Ryckman, PhD, MS and Elizabeth Rogers, MD, is a PI on the PROMPT study.

The San Diego Study of Outcomes in Mothers and Infants (SOMI) Study focuses on improving our understanding of the complex combination of factors – from biological to social, from economic to environmental – that contribute to child health outcomes. To do this, SOMI combines and uses existing sets of data that have been collected from San Diego County communities, families, and individuals over the last 10 years, and will continue to be collected for the next 10+ years – representing a total of 1 million mother-child pairs. SOMI is led by Dr. Christina Chambers, PhD, MPH, who is also a Founder of the HOPE Consortium. SOMI partners with the HOPE Consortium across several studies, including with the HOPE COVID-19 study (where Dr. Chambers serves Co-PI), the CPPOP study, and the Social Determinants and Heart Defects Study.

The Ryckman Lab at the Indiana University Bloomington focuses on investigatingepidemiologic, genetic and metabolic pathways that contribute to maternal and neonatal morbidities and mortality. Their research applies a variety of statistical methodologies, including the use of genetic risk scores, causal mediation analysis, and meta-analysis for analyzing metabolic conditions of pregnancy such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and preterm birth. Their research program includes several national data sources, such as vital records, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, newborn screening measurements, and a large repository of biologic specimens. Dr. Kelli Ryckman, PhD, MS (PI and Laboratory Lead) and team work across multiple HOPE Consortium studies. Dr. Ryckman is PI on the Cancer and Pregnancy Outcomes Study and is PI on the PROMPT study with Drs. Elizabeth Rogers, MD, and Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, PhD. She is also a Co-PI on the CPPOP study and is a founder of the HOPE Consortium.

The UCSF Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine (BCMM) is focused on research aimed at increasing understanding of the links between health and the microbiome. BCMM and HOPE investigators work in partnership on the PROMPT and HOPE studies through the BCMM Premature Microbiome and Outcomes Collaborative Research Initiative (PREMO) and are focused on understanding the interplay of metabolic, microbiome, and immune factors on pregnancy and infant outcomes with study and data collection spanning pregnancy through the first few years of life. The BCMM also includes a Therapeutics Initiative focused on investigating how drugs, including microbe- and host-targeted small molecules and biologics, drive inter-individual variations in the microbiome structure and function. The BCMM is directed by Dr. Susan Lynch in the UCSF Department of Medicine and includes investigators throughout UCSF.

The Derisi Lab at the University of California, San Francisco focuses on genomic approaches to the study of infectious disease. They are also involved in a major effort to discover new viral pathogens associated with diseases of unknown origin and have been taking a lead position in recent investigations focused on COVID-19 realted virus. Some of their work is around researching the causes of the most deadly form of human malaria. The Derisi Lab and its PI and lead, Dr. Joe Derisi, PhD, work closely with the PTBi-CA on many efforts and are also HOPE Consortium partners on the CPPOP study and on emerging work related to COVID-19.

The Center for Health and Community (CHC) at the University of California, San Francisco focuses on improving individual and population health through research and teaching addressing the social, behavioral and, policy aspects of health and health care. Their work includes lab-based studies of causal mechanisms, observational research linking social exposures to health outcomes, intervention research testing innovative approaches, implementation research to improve uptake of successful interventions, and dissemination of new knowledge and approaches. CHC faculty including Drs. Elissa Epel, PhD, Aric Prather, PhD, and Matt Pantell, MD, MS, work on multiple HOPE Consortium projects including on CPPOP and HOPE COVID-19.

The Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Research (AME) Center at the University of California, San Francisco focuses on conducting research on how people can thrive in both mind and body, especially when under severe adversity such as poverty, caregiving, work stress, and depression. AME focuses on understanding optimal health, through interrelationships between biological aging, metabolism, and emotion regulation. They are based at the UCSF Center for Health and Community. Drs. Elissa Epel, PhD and Aric Prather, PhD, Directors of the AME, have worked on many studies with the PTBi-CA and are HOPE Consortium partners on the CPPOP and the HOPE COVID-19 studies.

The Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (IDRC) focuses on high-quality research in infectious and other important diseases of public health concern through collaboration and partnerships. Some of their work focuses on malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV research. Their studies have greatly impacted the management of infectious diseases in Uganda and around the world. The IDRC is led by Dr. Moses Kamya (M.Med, MPH, PhD) who serves as the Executive Director and is a Professor and Dean of the School of Medicine at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. Lead IDRC scientists who have worked closely with other HOPE Consortium scientists (especially on the PROMPT project) include Drs. Abel Kakuru, Mary Muhindo-Kakuru, and Richard Kajubi at the IDRC and Drs. Grant Dorsey and Diane Havlir at UCSF as well as Dr. Prasanna Jagannathan at Stanford Univeristy.

The Providence Molecular Genomics Laboratory is a state-of-the-art genome center employing the latest in sequencing technology. The current approach, widely used today, is called “massively-parallel sequencing,” and allows for the simultaneous sequencing of millions of DNA fragments, enabling the laboratory to identify a large number of mutations across the genome in a matter of hours or days. The HOPE Consortium has been working with this laboratory and partner Providence serology and virology laboratories to identify molecular contributors to adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes. Dr. Brian Piening, PhD, one of the directors of the genomics laboratory, has worked closely with the PTBi-CA for several years and is an expert in clinical genomics and and multi-omic analyses. The genomics, serology, and virology laboratories at Providence are partnering with the HOPE Consortium on the HOPE COVID-19 study. Dr. Piening has also participated in the CPPOP study.