Brown Center Research

Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk

The Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk was established at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital in 2005. The mission of the Center is to stimulate outstanding interdisciplinary research, education and clinical services on the biological and social factors that determine the developmental outcome of at-risk children.

Contact Information:

Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk
50 Holden Street
Providence, RI
(401) 453-7640

The Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk is dedicated to:
  1. Advancing theories of the developmental pathways from fetal and infancy periods of at-risk children.
  2. Enhancing synergy between research and clinical practice that advances child development research, intervention programs and social policy.
  3. Training scientists and practitioners in interdisciplinary methods from the field of child development.
Current studies are in such areas as:
  • Autism
  • Epigenetics
  • Health care environment
  • Kinematics
  • Language development
  • Maternal depression
  • Prenatal substance abuse
  • Preterm development
  • Treatment of infant withdrawal

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Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO)

In September 2016, Women & Infants earned a two-year $4.9 million grant to participate in the National Institutes of Health’s ECHO Program. Under the leadership of principal investigator Dr. Barry Lester, Women & Infants has joined 35 pediatric cohorts who will together enroll more than 50,000 children to study the early environmental origins of health outcomes.

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