UVA School of Medicine

tional education, but now it is a passion. "We're very much in- volved in training people from south africa because we really believe south africans should find south africa's solutions," Rekosh says. "We would hope we can train scientists there who can start dealing with the drug resistance problem when it starts to become a problem." the relationship between UVa and Univen—a collabora- tion that spans several depart- ments and centers at UVa—has brought about many great friendships, including a strong bond between Mavhandu and her mentors. "she is like a daughter to us," says Hammar- skjold. c a R e e R P l a N S Once she has completed her doctorate, Mavhandu hopes to obtain a research position at Univen so that she can contin- ue the work she has under way. "i think for me to be there i can make things change," she says. "i don't know how yet. But the little input i can make, it will make our department grow. i know i have influenced it to be what it is now. there is strong research going on there, but there are still some things we are still learning, as we are in a developing country. But i trust that in a couple of years, our university will have the best." —Josh Barney E xercising during pregnancy can help protect the unborn child from diabetes and other health problems in later life, research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests. Researchers have determined that exercise during pregnancy prevented a damaging epigenetic effect of the mother's obesity—an effect believed to put chemical marks on genes and lead to diabetes in the offspring. The researchers identified the specific gene involved, providing an important target for developing drugs that would prevent the undesired effect. While the researchers were focused primarily on diabetes, the findings could have important implications for many other conditions. "Disease transmission from parent to offspring is not limited to diabetes but appears to be the case with many, many diseases," says Zhen Yan, PhD, of UVA's Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center. "There is accumulating evidence suggesting diseases ranging from atherosclerosis to diabetes to schizophrenia —all these diseases we talk about these days— are influenced by maternal condition." Long-term health impact UVA's study was based on the idea of developmental programming, that the condition and behavior of the mother affects the health of their offspring not just when they're born but throughout their life. To test the effect of maternal exercise during pregnancy, they fed mice a high-fat diet, allowed some access to an exercise wheel and then compared the long-term epigenetic and metabolic outcomes in their offspring. "There are plenty of population studies that show that a high-fat diet or obesity will program the offspring and increase their risk of developing diabetes or high blood pressure when they grow up," says Rhianna Laker, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Yan's lab and lead author of a paper outlining the new findings. "We set up an animal model of maternal obesity and exercise in pregnancy because no one has looked at the epigenetic influence of exercise during pregnancy that could benefit the offspring." Obesity and exercise For their next steps, the researchers will take a closer look at the findings, to better understand the effects of maternal obesity and exercise on the offspring's genes, and they hope to conduct a clinical trial to evaluate the effects in people. In the meantime, they said their findings carry an important message for moms-to-be. "For me the most important finding of this study is that you can modify the amount of exercise you have during pregnancy and that has a distinct molecular consequence on your child, and that allows them to be, essentially, more fit," says researcher Jessica Connelly, PhD, of the Berne Center. Benefiting a Child's lifelong Health Epigenetic influences of mom exercising during pregnancy "There is accumulating evidence suggesting diseases … are influenced by maternal condition." –Zhen Yan, PhD 9 Vitals Spring 2014

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