Antenatal, Maternal and Child Health

This Theme’s Focus

Early identification of women at high risk of pregnancy complications through advanced foetal-maternal phenotyping and biomarker development
Improve national guidelines for monitoring pregnancy to reduce the number of stillbirths, infant and maternal deaths and prevent neonatal brain injury and other birth complications
Develop new ways to predict, detect and prevent the development of chronic conditions at an early stage through combining genomics, biological samples and linked UK health records

Improving outcomes for mothers and babies and reducing the lifetime impact of chronic illness are the key priorities for the antenatal, maternal and child health theme. Many common long-term illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes and mental illness begin to develop before birth, or early in childhood. We believe that early diagnosis and intervention (such as treatment or lifestyle changes) would significantly reduce the number of people who go onto experience these conditions as they age. However, we do not currently have accurate methods to detect these developing conditions or know which changes or treatments would be most effective at preventing or treating them.

This theme will respond to the key goals of the Department of Health and Social Care to ‘accelerate action on reducing still birth, maternal mortality, neonatal mortality and serious brain injury’ by focusing on early identification of mothers at risk of pregnancy complications and earlier detection of health conditions in childhood.

The theme will combine genomics, identification of biomarkers and linkage to national health records to understand patterns and predictors of long-term health outcomes in children. Combining antenatal and paediatric research will allow our researchers to develop a fuller picture of childhood development, and, working with other NIHR Cambridge BRC themes, extend the impact of these findings across the life course.

Who we work with

We will work closely with academic partners across the region (University of East Anglia, Anglia Ruskin University), other Biomedical Research Centres including Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and Bristol, international collaborators and industry (Illumina, Roche, Pfizer) to share expertise. We will also work with the NIHR young people’s BioResource, Wellcome Sanger Institute and EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute to build patient cohorts, facilitate genomic and biomarker studies, and use artificial intelligence and other techniques with ‘big data’ to identify patters and targets in the consented data sets.

Patient and Public Involvement

Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement is a vital part of the work of this theme, and we are committed to involving children and their families in our research. We work closely with the Cambridge Children’s Network of more than 500 children and young people, who are helping to plan the NHS Cambridge Children’s Hospital, and with charities and support groups such as Sands, Bliss, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the INNODIA study (www.innodia.eu) and camRARE (Cambridge Rare Disease Network).

Theme Leads

Professor David Rowitch

Head of Department of Paediatrics
Email: dhr25@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Dr Sarah Teichmann

Systems and Genome Biologist
Email: st9@sanger.ac.uk

Meet our researchers

Our Current Projects:

Sample collection

We aim to identify biomarkers associated with stillbirth by developing “omic” platform tools for levels of antenatal in diverse populations.

Identify underlying conditions during and after pregnancy

Our investigators will work with our subthemes and other specialities within the BRC to investigate the causes of fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia, neonatal sepsis and brain injury, paediatric cancer, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Type-1 diabetes (T1D).

Improve neuroprotective interventions for neonatal brain injury

With Neuroscience investigators, we will develop remote seizure monitoring and use genome sequencing to characterise neurogenetic epilepsy.

Latest News

Baby born deaf can hear after breakthrough gene therapy

May 9, 2024

Launched today! Phone app supports parents and carers of pre-term and sick babies

April 30, 2024

Uncertain young child. Image by Andrea Don from Pixabay.

Infants with brain injury may face social/emotional and behavioural complications, NIHR Cambridge BRC-supported study suggests

March 14, 2024

Close up image of pregnant woman - Redgular from Pixabay

Cambridge-led study discovers cause of pregnancy sickness – and potential treatment

December 13, 2023

Newborn babies at risk from bacteria commonly carried by mothers

November 30, 2023

Children holding hands - cherylholt from Pixabay

Cambridge announced as a major collaborator in new paediatric HealthTech Research Centre

November 23, 2023

Shaping the future for women with prolapse

November 6, 2023

Risks from smoking while pregnant more than double previous estimates

September 28, 2023

Baby with non-invasive sensors on their head to monitor brain activity during sleep. Photo reproduced with permission from Uchitel J et al, Neuroimage 2022 in press.

Cambridge researchers launch study to investigate the impact of neonatal intensive care on premature babies’ sleep patterns and brain development

December 15, 2022

Square image with 4 males, 2 above and 2 below

Cambridge researchers listed among world’s most influential researchers

November 21, 2022

Genomics lab reading samples on the screen - NIHR Cambridge BRC image

Children with cancer benefit from whole genome sequencing

April 25, 2022

New gene variants identified that cause hypertension in pregnant women

August 13, 2021

Researchers talk in person and online to Long Road College students about their work - the students' faces have been blurred to protect their identity.

What does a career in health research look like? Our researchers share their work with local sixth-form students

March 11, 2025

Genomics lab reading samples - NIHR Cambridge BRC image

Research collaboration offers new polygenic score insights in type 2 diabetes and related co-morbidities

March 11, 2025

New gene variants identified that cause hypertension in pregnant women

October 15, 2024

Predicting the breech baby

October 15, 2024

Ultrasound scan image of a baby in the womb

Expecting a boy or girl could influence pregnancy risks

October 15, 2024

Screening babies earlier to prevent complications later

October 14, 2024

What does a career in health research look like? Our researchers share their work with local sixth-form students

March 11, 2025

Research collaboration offers new polygenic score insights in type 2 diabetes and related co-morbidities

March 11, 2025

Predisposition Footprints in the Somatic Genome of Wilms tumour

February 14, 2025

Socioemotional and Psychological Outcomes of Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy: A Systematic Review

March 15, 2024

Prediction of spontaneous preterm birth using supervised machine learning on metabolomic data: A case–cohort study

March 15, 2024

The NIHR Cambridge BRC is part of the NIHR and hosted by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with the University of Cambridge. We are at the heart of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Europe’s largest health research area.

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Contact Us

Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre
Box 277
Hills Road
Cambridge
CB2 0QQ

Tel: 01223 348490

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Happy #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience
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Happy #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience
To celebrate this global day, we interviewed three women from our Cambridge BRC. Look out for Deborah's full interview on our website in the coming days..
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Antenatal, Maternal and Child Health

This Theme’s Focus

Who we work with

Patient and Public Involvement

Theme Leads

Professor David Rowitch

Dr Sarah Teichmann

Our Current Projects:

Sample collection

Identify underlying conditions during and after pregnancy

Improve neuroprotective interventions for neonatal brain injury

Latest News

Baby born deaf can hear after breakthrough gene therapy

Launched today! Phone app supports parents and carers of pre-term and sick babies

Infants with brain injury may face social/emotional and behavioural complications, NIHR Cambridge BRC-supported study suggests

Cambridge-led study discovers cause of pregnancy sickness – and potential treatment

Newborn babies at risk from bacteria commonly carried by mothers

Cambridge announced as a major collaborator in new paediatric HealthTech Research Centre

Shaping the future for women with prolapse

Risks from smoking while pregnant more than double previous estimates

Cambridge researchers launch study to investigate the impact of neonatal intensive care on premature babies’ sleep patterns and brain development

Cambridge researchers listed among world’s most influential researchers

Children with cancer benefit from whole genome sequencing

New gene variants identified that cause hypertension in pregnant women