Clemson professor receives award to study effect of mothers' obesity, diabetes on infants

CLEMSON UNIVERSITY — The National Institutes of Health has awarded Clemson University professor Maria Mayorga and Medical University of South Carolina professor Kelly Hunt a $735,000 grant to study the effects of a mother’s obesity and diabetes on infant health in certain ethnic groups.

Mayorga, an industrial engineer, and Hunt, an epidemiologist, will team up for three years to create a novel computer simulation model that will predict the impact of obesity and diabetes during pregnancy on African-American, non-Hispanic white and Hispanic populations.

The research will focus on whether prenatal risk factors, such as obesity and diabetes, affect an infant’s chance for developing these conditions later in life. If that is the case, Mayorga said, obesity and diabetes not only will continue to affect all populations, but ethnic groups that are already at risk for the diseases will continue to be disproportionately affected.