Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Kevin Nicholas of Deakin University in Australia will study the milk composition of lactating Australian marsupials (the tammar wallaby) to identify proteins, and then their human equivalents, that promote gut function and stomach development in infants. Such proteins could be developed into a supplement for improved health outcomes for preterm and low birth weight babies.

Sean Moore and colleagues at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in the U.S. will generate a mouse model of human environmental enteropathy, which is characterized by stunted growth and physiological defects in the gut, and is caused by malnutrition and repeated infections. The model will be used to test whether environmental enteropathy is affected by diet and contaminated water, and whether it reduces the effect of oral vaccines. In Phase I, they proved that feeding mice a nutritionally deficient diet mimicked at least some of the features of the human disease.

Benjamin Yu of the University of California San Diego in the U.S. will isolate and sequence RNA found in the hair and nails of newborns to study whether specific RNA changes can be found in low-birthweight babies. This molecular tool could help uncover nutritional or environmental factors that cause newborn disease.

Loredana Quadro of Rutgers University in the U.S. will engineer strains of bacteria found in the human gut to produce the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene, and test in a mouse model the hypothesis that vitamin A-deficiency could be controlled and healthy growth of children and infant promoted through colonization of the gut by these engineered probiotics.

Bruce Hamaker of Purdue University in the U.S., and colleagues in Mali, will use a new non-invasive breath test to assess moderately malnourished children for pancreatic enzyme deficiencies that inhibit the digestion of energy-rich starch, and then test simple, local foods for their ability to deliver the alternative energy food glucose to these children for recovery, growth, and brain development.

Kiersten Israel-Ballard of PATH in the U.S., in partnership with University of Washington and Human Milk Banking (HMB) Association of South Africa, will work to develop and test a low-cost, cell-phone-based networked sensing system to provide safety monitoring of low-technology flash- heating pasteurization of breast milk designated for donation. The goal is to scale-up human milk banking for vulnerable infants in resource-limited settings.

OraLee Branch of New York University in the U.S. will research the hypothesis that inflammation of the placenta affects the postnatal growth of offspring by altering programming in the fetus that determines the makeup of the child's intestinal microbiota. Correcting such fetal programming could promote nutrient absorption and healthy growth.

Deanna Gibson and Sanjoy Ghosh of the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Canada will test in a mouse model whether modifying the dietary intake of pregnant mothers can lead to the establishment of healthy microflora in an offspring's intestinal tract once they are born. Maternal diets thus could be altered to help bolster the mucosal immune response and reduce susceptibility of disease in infants.

Thomas McDonald of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the U.S. will work with colleagues to produce an edible algae that produces a colostrum protein to enhance mucosal immunity in infants. The team will test the ability of the algae to prevent infectious diarrheal diseases, a major cause of infant mortality in the developing world.

John Groopman of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the U.S. will test the hypothesis that exposure during pregnancy to aflatoxin, a toxin produced by mold that widely contaminates staple grains and nuts in hot, humid environments, can lead to stunted fetal growth. Groopman will assess levels of biomarkers related to aflatoxin exposure in serum samples and compare them to maternal and infant data to determine if aflatoxin contributes to smaller birth size.