Maintenance and Enhancement of the Asian American enriched Cohort

Over 90% of Asian American (AsA) adults are either first-generation (foreign-born) or second-generation immigrants, experiencing a substantial environmental and sociocultural transition in this country. Yet, most environmental epidemiology cohorts have rarely included sufficient numbers of AsA. The FAMiLI (Food and Microbiome Longitudinal Investigation), is the only large environmental epidemiology cohort, incorporating a broad spectrum of AsA. We uniquely capture environmental, diet acculturation, and sociocultural factors—pre and post-immigration at baseline, and with repeated assessments during follow-up. A biobank, including buccal and stool samples, will greatly advance biological discoveries in the oral and gut microbiomes, metabolomics, human genomics, and other omics markers. The overarching rationale for FAMiLi is to examine environmental, sociocultural, diet, and biological factors that influence health outcomes (cancer and cardiometabolic diseases) in AsA and other populations. Initiated in 2018, we completed an initial recruitment and biospecimen collection of 13,000 study participants (aged 35–75 years), including 6,000 AsA. Through this U24, we propose to maintain FAMiLI data and biospecimens and enrich the cohort through additional recruitment, data collection, biorepository, and data management collaboration. The FAMiLI is a unique nationwide resource with extensive data and biospecimen collection to answer important scientific questions advancing environmental health science relevant to NIEHS strategic plan, including the microbiome, the exposome, individual superstability, and data science/big data. The cohort is particularly well suited to investigate critical windows of environmental changes and the factors underlying increased disease risk, and trends in health outcomes.