Entering its 10th year, the ECHO Program is expanding its reach to enhance the health of children across the U.S. In this message, I highlight two ways ECHO is magnifying its impact: helping to translate ECHO research into tangible action via our upcoming Symposium, and broadening access to ECHO data and biospecimens to catalyze their widest use by the research community via ancillary studies.

First, I hope you will join us for the inaugural ECHO Symposium: Translating Science to Action on September 15, 2025, at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and online. This free, one-day event will bring together scientists, clinicians, policymakers, advocates, community leaders, and more to explore how early-life environmental factors shape child health—and how we can collaboratively move research into action.

Second, I’m pleased to highlight the ECHO Cohort’s new ancillary studies process. Through this process, any eligible researcher, including those outside of ECHO, can access the rich data on the full ECHO Cohort Data Platform. They can also request biospecimens from the ECHO Cohort Biorepository. The rapidly growing biorepository contains a wide range of specimens from our pregnant and child participants, including blood, urine, stool, placenta, nasal swabs, shed teeth, and other samples. These data and specimen resources enable researchers to explore an almost limitless set of important research questions on the causes and prevention of preterm birth, asthma, obesity, autism, and ADHD, to name a few conditions, as well as how to preserve health as children grow and develop.

A wide range of analyses is possible with an ECHO Cohort ancillary study. Examples include:

• Detecting modifiable early developmental exposures that, if addressed by programs, policies, and practices, could enhance child health outcomes across the life course.
• Exploring pathways to child health outcomes that incorporate state-of-the-art analytical biochemical or statistical methods.
• Examining resilience or susceptibility factors that buffer or amplify the effects of adverse early exposures on child health outcomes.
• Identifying periods of development most sensitive to specific beneficial or detrimental exposures to inform new strategies to promote child health.
• Measuring the effects of natural experiments or new health innovations on child health outcomes.

Visit the ancillary studies page to get started.

Matthew Gillman, MD, SM
Director of the ECHO Program