The University of Tennessee College of Medicine’s campus in Chattanooga has received a $2.4 million federal grant to participate in a sweeping national study that will follow 100,000 children from conception through age 21.

Dr. David Seaberg, dean of the UT College of Medicine in Chattanooga, said the funding — from the National Institutes of Health — is the campus’ first federal grant.

The study is “probably one of the largest ever conducted, certainly in recent memory,” said Dr. Seaberg, who announced the grant at Erlanger hospital’s monthly board of trustees meeting Thursday night.

The undertaking, called the National Children’s Study, will look at children from 105 locations across the United States, observing the effects of environmental influences on the children’s health and development.