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IMAGE: UArizona Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center Director Fernando D. Martinez, MD, at the university's BIO5 Institute
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Credit: University of Arizona Health Sciences
TUCSON, Ariz. -- A cross-border investigation of children's susceptibility to asthma and other childhood illnesses in the United States and Mexico is the focus of a new study led by researchers in the Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center at the University of Arizona Health Sciences.
The study is funded by a $15.3 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The Binational Early Asthma and Microbiome Study, or BEAMS, will recruit 500 Mexican-American and Mexican children - 250 in Tucson, Arizona, and 250 in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico - before the mothers have given birth. The mothers will be evaluated while pregnant and the children will be followed from birth to age 5 to examine how the "hygiene hypothesis" affects them and their risk of asthma.