The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) awarded a $134,730 Project Grant under the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research program (CFDA 93.307) to The Johns Hopkins University. The grant will fund a 5-year research project to examine the impact of maternal weight status and preterm birth on vertical transmission of the gut microbiome and its relationship with childhood obesity. The project will leverage existing data from two ongoing longitudinal studies - the Latino Mother's Milk Study and the Atlanta African American Mother Child Cohort - to analyze strain-level vertical transmission of gut microbes, the function of the child gut microbiome, and childhood overweight/obesity outcomes. The research aims to improve understanding of how vertical microbiome transmission influences the infant gut microbiome and obesity risk, with the potential to identify therapeutic targets for childhood obesity prevention.