Project SummaryÌý
We aim to understand how interactions between microorganisms, the immune system, and clinical, social, and behavioural factors during pregnancy and early life influence later health and disease. We hypothesise that the nascent immune system interacts with the first microbiota colonisers, driving immune-mediated disease when the colonisation process is disturbed.ÌýThis work includes exploring the impact of elective caesarean section, and of antibiotics given in pregnancy or labour, on the development of microbiota in a child's gastrointestinal tract.
Baby Biome Study is a proposed large-scale UK birth cohort study and biobank, with longitudinal follow-up through electronic health data linkage to undertake ground-breaking research in this field.
Funded by the Wellcome Trust, we have already completed a large pilot to Baby Biome Study, which has recruited nearly 3,500 mother-baby pairs at birth. Participants have been recruited from maternity units at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, and University College London Hospitals NHS hospital trusts. We are now seeking funding to expand this study to around 40,000 participants.
Publications
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Presentations
- Brocklehurst. The microbiome in late pregnancy and mother to child transmission. BASHH Conference 2016. Oxford.
- Yan Shao, Samuel C. Forster, Evi Tsaliki, Angela Strang, Nandi Simpson, Nitin Kumar, Mark Stares, Alison Rodger, Nigel Field, Trevor D. Lawley. Stunted gut microbiota assembly and increased pathogen colonisation are associated with caesarean section: findings from the Baby Biome Study birth cohort. British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society. Edinburgh, UK 2019.
New Birth Cohort Study
Visit the Children Growing Up in Liverpool (CGULL) webpage:Ìý
Prof Nigel Field to co-lead new Wellcome ‘4M - Microbes, Milk, Mental Health and Me’ study - Read more on 911±¬ÁÏÍøews
ÌýFollow up study: RHIO
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