DIABETES AND WOMEN'S HEALTH (DWH)

The mission of the Division of intramural Population Health Research is to conduct innovative etiological and interventional research to explore the health and well-being of pregnant women and their infants from pre-conception through adulthood and to translate these research findings into clinical practice or public policy to maximize health and eliminate health disparities. The Diabetes & Women’s Health (DWH) study investigates factors (medical, lifestyle, genetic and their interactions) that determine the risk of subsequent development of type 2 diabetes among women who had Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), a common pregnancy complication. The two research sites – the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, US and the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), Copenhagen, Denmark – are responsible for recruiting and retaining ≈4,000 women with a history of GDM. Under this task order, the Government requires repository services for the 28,150 human biospecimens (blood, plasma, serum, saliva, toenails) generated in the DWH study.