Skip to content
The Kids Research Institute Australia logo
Donate

Discover . Prevent . Cure .

Pregnancy and Early Life Immunology

The Pregnancy and Early Life Immunology team's overall research vision is targeted towards understanding immunological development during early life.

Our focus is on how environmental exposures/inflammation can impact normal immune system development during early life to program an individual to be protected against or at increased risk for development of a broad range of diseases, including asthma and allergies, respiratory, metabolic and mental health.

The overall objective is the development of novel therapeutic strategies to prevent environmentally induced aberrant immune function and to improve long term health prospects for children.

Our future research goals include discovering:

  • How environmental exposures impact the immune system over the course of life from the prenatal period to adult, and contribute to disease pathogenesis and risk.
  • How the immune system can be trained to prevent or minimize increased risk for diseases due to environmental exposures/inflammation.
  • If the immune system can be reprogrammed, following such changes, to reduce/reverse disease susceptibility.
  • What drives sex specific differences in disease.
  • Understanding the role of precursor stem cell populations in peripheral tissues.

The primary focus of these current research programs is on allergic outcomes, infectious diseases, pregnancy health, mental health and whether responses are gender dependent.

Team leader

Program Head, Immunobiology and Immunotherapeutic Program

Team members (7)

Head, Translational Immunology

Honorary Research Associate

Anya Jones
Anya Jones

BSc MSc PhD

Honorary Research Associate

Naomi Scott

Naomi Scott

Senior Research Officer

Michael Serralha

Michael Serralha

Research Assistant

Kyle Mincham

Kyle Mincham

Research Officer

Laith Harb

Laith Harb

PhD student

Pregnancy and Early Life Immunology projects

Show more projects

Reports and Findings

Reports and Findings

Nasal Delivery of Haemophilus haemolyticus Is Safe, Reduces Influenza Severity, and Prevents Development of Otitis Media in Mice

Despite vaccination, influenza and otitis media (OM) remain leading causes of illness. We previously found that the human respiratory commensal Haemophilus haemolyticus prevents bacterial infection in vitro and that the related murine commensal Muribacter muris delays OM development in mice. The observation that M muris pretreatment reduced lung influenza titer and inflammation suggests that these bacteria could be exploited for protection against influenza/OM.

Two-year post-treatment outcomes following peanut oral immunotherapy in the Probiotic and Peanut Oral Immunotherapy-003 Long-Term (PPOIT-003LT) study

Few studies have examined long-term outcomes following oral immunotherapy; none have examined long-term risks and benefits associated with distinct clinical outcomes (desensitization, remission).

Immunogenicity, reactogenicity, and IgE-mediated immune responses of a mixed whole-cell and acellular pertussis vaccine schedule in Australian infants: A randomised, double-blind, noninferiority trial

In many countries, infant vaccination with acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines has replaced use of more reactogenic whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccines. Based on immunological and epidemiological evidence, we hypothesised that substituting the first aP dose in the routine vaccination schedule with wP vaccine might protect against IgE-mediated food allergy. We aimed to compare reactogenicity, immunogenicity, and IgE-mediated responses of a mixed wP/aP primary schedule versus the standard aP-only schedule.

An infant mouse model of influenza-driven nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae colonization and acute otitis media suitable for preclinical testing of novel therapies

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is a major otitis media (OM) pathogen, with colonization a prerequisite for disease development. Most acute OM is in children <5 years old, with recurrent and chronic OM impacting hearing and learning. Therapies to prevent NTHi colonization and/or disease are needed, especially for young children. Respiratory viruses are implicated in driving the development of bacterial OM in children.

Show all