Once upon a time it was infectious diseases like polio, measles or tuberculosis that most worried parents. With these threats now largely under control, parents face a new challenge – sky- rocketing rates of non-infectious diseases such as asthma, allergies and autism.
Collectively known as non-communicable diseases, or NCDs, non-infectious conditions including respiratory, allergic, metabolic, neurodevelopmental and mental illness disorders are impacting our kids more than ever before, and now make up the majority of the childhood disease burden.
It’s now recognised that virtually all NCDs have their origins in early life, at a time of heightened developmental plasticity – and it is here that researchers will hunt for answers as part of the second Think Big proposal chosen to receive prioritised support in 2018.
A large team made up of scientists from multiple research groups at the Institute will come together to investigate immune development as a way of understanding and tackling NCDs.
Lead investigator Associate Professor Deb Strickland, Head of the Institute’s Experimental Immunology team, said there was growing understanding that impaired immune development likely played an important role in NCDs which had not been previously recognised as having an immune component.
“Immune development is shaped both by a child’s genetics and the sum of their beneficial and harmful environmental exposures,” Associate Professor Strickland said.
“We plan to use cutting-edge techniques to create an ‘immune development atlas’ which will map how environmental and genetic factors are linked with variations in immune development during the first 1000 days of life, and how these are in turn linked with different risks for NCD onset.”
The researchers plan to look for links between immune development and asthma, allergy and obesity – fields in which they have a track record of success. In collaboration with relevant experts (including the other Think Big group receiving support in 2018), they will continue to expand their focus to address the other most common NCDs afflicting Australian kids – one such study looking at links between immune function and autism is already underway.
The proposal’s co-investigators are Dr Anthony Bosco, Head of the Systems Immunology Team, Dr Shelley Gorman, Head of the Cardiometabolic Sunhealth Team, and Associate Professor Alex Larcombe, Head of the Respiratory Environmental Health Team, with researchers from other teams at the Institute joining as the project expands.
“If we can determine how to promote healthy immune development, we can develop new personalised prevention and treatment strategies to reduce the impact of NCDs in Australia and beyond,” Professor Strickland said.
“If successful, this project will revolutionise our understanding of the early origins of non-communicable diseases, and has strong potential to identify new early interventions.”
In 2017, we launched Think Big, the next phase of our research strategy. It’s all about big ideas, thinking outside the box and being innovative. Think Big brings together our research teams, collaborative networks of external researchers and health professionals, as well as consumers and community partners to develop ideas which could lead to large programs of research. Two big ideas were chosen and with strategic funding from key partner BHP, researchers are bringing to life these bold ideas that could help solve some of the most pressing child health problems of our time.