History

Establishment of Mommy’s Milk Human Milk Research Biorepository, a joint project between the US San Diego Division of Dysmorphology and Teratology, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, and the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute.

Mommy’s Milk enrolls its first research participant and collects the first human milk samples that are added to the research biorepository.

The UC San Diego Center for the Promotion of Maternal Health and Infant Development is re-named as the Center for Better Beginnings. Mommy’s Milk is one of the programs housed at the Center.

Mommy’s Milk receives a Rady Academic Enrichment Program Award to support the primary goals of Mommy’s Milk: (1) to develop an infrastructure for a sustainable research-focused human milk repository; and (2) to develop, maintain, and manage the repository as a resource for investigators to conduct research on the health characteristics and benefits of human milk.

Mommy’s Milk receives another Rady Academic Enrichment Program Award, this one to help the program: (1) expand recruitment and enrollment of lactating women across the US and Canada who were being treated with a wide variety of medications; and (2) collect human milk samples from lactating women who were being treated with etanercept, a drug commonly prescribed for the treatment of several autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.

JUNE – Mommy’s Milk is awarded a three-year grant from the Gerber Foundation to conduct a study that will measure the concentration of cannabinoids (the various components of the Cannabis, or marijuana, plant) in human milk and examine selected infant health-related outcomes.

JULY – Mommy’s Milk is approved to be the repository for breast milk samples collected from lactating parents who are participating in a study that Mommy’s Milk director Dr. Chambers is conducting in Ukraine. The study is: (1) examining factors that influence the risk of having a child affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol; and (2) evaluating methods for earlier identification of affected children so that interventions can be implemented.

SEPTEMBER – Mommy’s Milk researchers publish a study in the journal Pediatrics which found that delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta 9-THC), the psychoactive component of cannabis, was measurable in a majority of breast milk samples up to ∼6 days after maternal cannabis use.

MAY – Mommy’s Milk is awarded additional funding from the Gerber Foundation to expand the marijuana use during lactation study by adding the recruitment of an additional 100 cannabis-using nursing parents and by linking the results of the breast milk analysis to infant neurodevelopmental outcomes.

OCTOBER – Mommy’s Milk becomes an enrollment site for the nationwide, multi-site CUDDLE study (Commonly Used Drugs During Lactation and infant Exposure), a study that is part of the NIH-funded Pediatric Trials Network. The study is examining pharmacokinetics and safety of commonly used medications in lactating parents and breastfed infants.

MARCH – Within days of the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mommy’s Milk launches a study to collect human milk samples from lactating parents who had confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection.

MARCH – Mommy’s Milk researchers publish a paper in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine that describes the formation and design of the Mommy’s Milk Human Milk Research Biorepository. This paper critically describes the methods of data collection used by Mommy’s Milk and the breadth of the data that is available to the scientific community in our database.

OCTOBER – Mommy’s Milk researchers publish one of the first studies to find that human milk does not contain viral DNA from COVID-19. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study results suggest that human milk is unlikely to transmit COVID-19 infection to a breastfed infant.

DECEMBER – As COVID-19 vaccines begin to roll-out following Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Mommy’s Milk rapidly opens a study to evaluate the use of these vaccines by breastfeeding parents.

MARCH – Mommy’s Milk is awarded an administrative supplement to the existing R21 grant funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The supplement will support the collection of human milk samples and associated clinical data from lactating women who received one or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The supplement is intended to answer questions about what, if any, impact the vaccine has on milk composition, infant adverse events, or milk supply.

SEPTEMBER – Mommy’s Milk receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development through a center grant (P50) awarded to Dr. Adriana Tremoulet in the UC San Diego Division of Infectious Diseases. The study is measuring the presence of four common antibiotics in milk, evaluating how they alter the milk composition profile, and assessing whether and how they affect infant development.

SEPTEMBER – Mommy’s Milk researchers publish a study in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine examining maternal report of mother and infant outcomes following maternal vaccination with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The study results were reassuring regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccination for lactating parents and their breastfed children.

JULY – Dr. Chambers, founder and program director of Mommy’s Milk, is named Chief of the Division of Environmental Health and Science (formerly the Division of Dysmorphology and Teratology) in the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego.

AUGUST – Mommy’s Milk is awarded an administrative supplement to the existing P50 grant funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The supplement will leverage Mommy’s Milk as a resource to generate preliminary data, enhance sample collection number and type, and develop analytic approaches. The goal of this work is to demonstrate the capacity of Mommy’s Milk as a unique resource for translational research in maternal and pediatric lactation-related therapeutics.

OCTOBER – In collaboration with colleagues at UC Los Angeles, Mommy’s Milk researchers publish data in the journal Pediatric Research that included a larger sample of 110 lactating parents who were infected with COVID-19 while breastfeeding. Study results confirmed the earlier 2021 study, which found no evidence that human milk contains infectious virus or that breastfeeding represents a risk factor for transmission of COVID-19 infection to infants.

OCTOBER – UC San Diego launches the Human Milk Institute to accelerate research into the nature, biology, and therapeutic potential of human milk to prevent or treat infant and adult diseases. The institute harmonizes efforts across multiple, ongoing programs at UC San Diego related to human milk and lactation, including Mommy’s Milk.

MARCH – The launch of the UC San Diego Human Milk Institute was celebrated with the 1^st Annual Human Milk Symposium. It featured keynote speaker Dr. Andrew Bremer, Chief of the Pediatric Growth and Nutrition Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Talks were also given on such topics as human milk in the treatment of premature and sick neonates, immunity transfer, infant oral dynamics in breastfeeding, nutrient fortification of human milk, opportunities to advance human milk research, and point-of-care human milk testing.

MARCH – Mommy’s Milk participated in the 2^nd Annual Human Milk Symposium, hosted by the UC San Diego Human Milk Institute. The theme was A Shared Vision for Human Milk: Synergizing Research, Clinical Care, and Equitable Access. It featured keynote speaker Dr. Nigel Rollins from the World Health Organization, as well as talks on such topics as HIV, the microbiome, immune response, vulnerable populations, therapeutics and diagnostics, and donor milk.

DECEMBER – Mommy’s Milk receives funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences through a cooperative agreement (U24). As an existing environmental epidemiology cohort, the study will focus on growing Mommy’s Milk participation by partnering with regional and local lactation consulting groups and community partners to ensure the Mommy’s Milk cohort is representative of all lactating parents. It will also enhance the accessibility of the program’s data to the scientific community.

MARCH – The Mommy’s Milk team attended the 3^rd Annual Human Milk Symposium, hosted by the UC San Diego Human Milk Institute. It featured keynote speaker Dr. Nigel Rollins from the World Health Organization, as well as talks on such topics as the role of human milk in emerging threats to public health; extracellular vesicles in human milk; social determinants of health; and the application of innovative technologies in human milk research.