Summary
My fascination with the trillions of microbes that inhabit us combined with my paediatric background led me to join the Paediatric Microbiome Research Group. I was intrigued by the condition which primarily affects premature infants - necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). This disease has a high mortality rate and can leave survivors with devastating long term effects. Unfortunately, its aetiology is ill defined, and as result, treatment is largely supportive. I was awarded an NIHR doctoral research fellowship to undertake a study which aimed to characterise the developing faecal microbiota of preterm infants and its relation to NEC. We discovered two microbial signatures that anticipated the development of NEC and are currently exploring this in greater detail with metagenomic analysis.
Publications
Journals
Shaw A, Sim K, Rose G, et al., 2021, Premature neonatal gut microbial community patterns supporting an epithelial TLR-mediated pathway for necrotizing enterocolitis, Bmc Microbiology, Vol:21, ISSN:1471-2180, Pages:1-11
Sim K, Mijakoski D, Stoleski S, et al., 2020, Outcomes for clinical trials of food allergy treatments, Annals of Allergy Asthma & Immunology, Vol:125, ISSN:1081-1206, Pages:535-542
Kroll JS, Hall L, Kiu R, et al., 2020, Microbiota supplementation with Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus modifies the preterm infant gut microbiota and metabolome: an observational study, Cell Reports Medicine, Vol:1, ISSN:2666-3791
Shaw A, Cornwell E, Sim K, et al., 2020, Dynamics of toxigenic Clostridium perfringens colonisation in a cohort of prematurely born neonatal infants, Bmc Pediatrics, Vol:20, ISSN:1471-2431
Conference
Lloyd E, Kaminskaite V, Williams H, et al., 2020, A case controlled retrospective study on the effect of neonatal probiotic supplementation on the incidence and tolerance to Cow's Milk Protein Allergy, European-Academy-of-Allergology-and-Clinical-Immunology Digital Congress (EAACI), WILEY, Pages:265-265, ISSN:0105-4538