Christine Seroogy, MD, recently received an award of $20,000 from the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) for her project, “Exploratory Immunologic Differences in Cord Blood from Infants Born into Farming Environments Compared to Nonfarming Environments in MESA.” This pilot study will initiate studies into defining immune maturation differences between farm and non-farm exposures by enrolling pregnant women from the Marshfield Epidemiologic Study Area for participation of their infants. Existing epidemiologic data demonstrates farming exposures protect infants from allergic diseases and respiratory illnesses and we believe the key to decreasing the incidence of these significant public health problems rests in improved understanding of early life immune maturation.