About Our Lab
The Spicer Lab studies pregnancy and the impact that life factors, such as stress, environment, and socioeconomic status may have on maternal and infant health and relationships. We examine how stress gets “under the skin” to alter health outcomes for women and how it may be passed along to offspring during pregnancy as well as the postpartum period.
We study women’s stress by asking participants questions about their moods, experiences, and health habits, and we study physical health by collecting biomarkers such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood and saliva to test inflammation and hormones in the body. We also study women’s relationships by asking questions about the social support they receive in their daily lives and by having mothers and their babies visit the lab to play games while we observe their interactions.
Contact Us
Julie Spicer, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
julie.spicer@mssm.edu
Current Projects
nuMoM2b – Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers to Be is a multi-site project that began in 2010 studying the underlying mechanisms of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The Spicer Lab specifically collected inflammatory cytokines from a subset of the women in the study and is currently examining these immune markers in relation to various pregnancy outcomes.
PreSIO Study – Pregnancy, Stress, and Infant Outcomes is a study for first time moms. We measure women’s stress and health during pregnancy, capture health outcomes after their infants are born, and observe attachment with their infants, both behaviorally and neurologically. Our participants visit the lab three times – twice during pregnancy and once at four months postpartum. They complete tasks and activities including questionnaires, blood draws, saliva collections, heart rate and blood pressure monitoring, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They also visit with their infants to complete various mother-infant activities, such as playing with toys and interacting with one another.
These studies are funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD).
Selected Publications
Intergenerational Echoes of Climate Change. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020 Aug 1;77(8):778-780. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0604. PubMed PMID: 32347914.
Ambulatory Blood Pressure Trajectory and Perceived Stress in Relation to Birth Outcomes in Healthy Pregnant Adolescents. Psychosom Med. 2019 Jun;81(5):464-476. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000698. PubMed PMID: 31090671; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6715293.
Ambulatory assessments of psychological and peripheral stress-markers predict birth outcomes in teen pregnancy. J Psychosom Res. 2013 Oct;75(4):305-13. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2013.07.001. Epub 2013 Aug 13. PubMed PMID: 24119935; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3825556.
Linking prenatal maternal adversity to developmental outcomes in infants: the role of epigenetic pathways. Dev Psychopathol. 2012 Nov;24(4):1361-76. doi: 10.1017/S0954579412000764. Review. PubMed PMID: 23062303; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3730125.
See more below:
Team
Dr. Julie Spicer
Assistant Professor
julie.spicer@mssm.edu
Dr. Shelley Liu
Assistant Professor
shelley.liu@mssm.edu
Andrea Alatorre
Research Coordinator
andrea.alatorre@mssm.edu
Katie Choi
Biostatistician
hyewon.choi@mountsinai.org
Location
Icahn School of Medicine
1425 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10029