Project Summary
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. This 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
- Shao, Y., Garcia-Mauriño, C., Clare, S. et al. Primary succession of Bifidobacteria drives pathogen resistance in neonatal microbiota assembly. Nat Microbiol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01804-9
- Shao, Y., Forster, S.C., Tsaliki, E. et al. Stunted microbiota and opportunistic pathogen colonization in caesarean-section birth. Nature 574, 117–121 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1560-1
- Alcazar, C.G.M., Paes, V.M., Shao, Y., Oesser, C., Miltz, A., Lawley, T.D., Brocklehurst, P., Rodger, A. and Field, N., 2022. The association between early-life gut microbiota and childhood respiratory diseases: a systematic review. The Lancet Microbe, 3(11), pp.e867-e880.
- Evdokia Tsaliki, Carolin T Turner, Cristina Venturini, Christy Kam, Angela Strang, Sarah Bailey, Alison Rodgers, Adam P Levine, Benjamin M Chain, Nandi Simpson, Eleanor M. Riley, Nigel Field, Peter Brocklehurst, Mahdad Noursadeghi bioRxiv 444216; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/444216
- Bailey SR, Townsend CL, Dent H, Mallet C, Tsaliki E, Riley EM, Noursadeghi M, Lawley TD, Rodger AJ, Brocklehurst P, Field N. A pilot study to understand feasibility and acceptability of stool and cord blood sample collection for a large-scale longitudinal birth cohort. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2017 Dec 28;17(1):439. doi: 10.1186/s12884-017-1627-7. PMID: 29282072; PMCID: PMC5745976.
- Bailey, S.R., Field, N., Townsend, C.L., Rodger, A.J. and Brocklehurst, P., 2016. Antibiotic prophylaxis for women undergoing caesarean section and infant health. BJOG, 123(6), pp.875-876.
Presentations
- Field N, Townsend CL, Rodger AJ, Lawley TD, Riley EM, Brocklehurst P. Infection and immunity from a lifecourse perspective: Life Study Enhancement. The Lancet. 2013; Volume 382 , S35.
- Brocklehurst. The microbiome in late pregnancy and mother to child transmission. BASHH Conference 2016. Oxford.
- Bailey SR, Townsend CL, Rodger AJ, Dent H, Mallet C, Tsaliki E, Laszlo H, Brocklehurst P, Field N. Acceptability of collection of multiple bio-samples to birth cohort participants: implications for large studies. UK Molecular epidemiology group Winter meeting on Metabolomics. 2014. London.
- 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: www.cgullstudy.com
Prof Nigel Field to co-lead new Wellcome ‘4M - Microbes, Milk, Mental Health and Me’ study - Read more on UCL News
Follow up study: RHIO