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Complementary feeding induces dramatic ecological shifts in the infant gut microbiota toward more diverse compositions and functional metabolic capacities, with potential implications for immune and metabolic health. The aim of this study was to examine whether the age at which solid foods are introduced differentially affects the microbiota in predominantly breastfed infants compared with predominantly formula-fed infants.
The first few days of life are characterized by rapid external and internal changes that require substantial immune system adaptations. Despite growing evidence of the impact of this period on lifelong immune health, this period remains largely uncharted.
Neonatal sepsis is a deadly disease with non-specific clinical signs, delaying diagnosis and treatment. There remains a need for early biomarkers to facilitate timely intervention. Our objective was to identify neonatal sepsis gene expression biomarkers that could predict sepsis at birth, prior to clinical presentation.
Early-life immune development is a critical factor in predicting the risk of childhood respiratory infections, asthma, and poor vaccine responses. Identifying immune endotypes that predispose children to these conditions could lead to the development of predictive biomarkers and early interventions, potentially improving long-term health outcomes.
he increasing adoption of high-throughput "omics" technologies has heightened the demand for standardized, scalable, and reproducible bioinformatics workflows. Nextflow and nf-core provide a robust framework for researchers, particularly early- and mid-career researchers (EMCRs), to navigate complex data analysis.
Vaccination has been a cornerstone of public health, substantially reducing the global burden of infectious diseases, notably evident during the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2.
Childhood is a critical period of immune development. During this time, naïve CD4 T cells undergo programmed cell differentiation, mediated by epigenetic changes, in response to external stimuli leading to a baseline homeostatic state that may determine lifelong disease risk. However, the ontogeny of epigenetic signatures associated with CD4 T cell activation during key developmental periods are yet to be described.
We investigated the genetic and epigenetic regulation of the UBASH3A gene and its association with early-onset sepsis. Using matched whole blood DNA methylation, gene expression, genotypes, and immune cell counts from the EPIC-HIPC newborn cohort, we report that promoter methylation was negatively correlated with ontogenetic changes in UBASH3A gene expression and circulating CD3+ T-cell numbers.
Consumption of a Mediterranean diet (MD) has been associated with reduced incidence of non-communicable diseases and reduced overall mortality, with epigenomic effects representing plausible mediators. The aim of this pilot study was to explore potential epigenetic associations between DNA methylation markers in blood and adherence to an MD in pregnancy.
Alexander David Martyn Larcombe Martino Symons BScEnv (Hons) PhD BSc PhD B.A. (Hons) PhD. Honorary Research Fellow Head, Chronic Diseases Research