ASCENT: Randomised controlled feasibility trial to investigate the impact of prepartum antibiotics exposure on childhood allergy

This project is suitable for PhD students.

Background

Early life from conception to infancy is a delicate stage where the immune system is highly susceptible to the environment. This project was initiated in response to concerns about the routine use of antibiotics during scheduled caesarean sections, despite their known impact on newborns’ microbiota and immune system. Antibiotics, such as cephazolin, are commonly administered to prevent infections but can disturb the microbiome for months, increasing the risk of immune dysfunction, the development of allergy as well as contributing to antimicrobial resistance. The ASCENT project is a randomized controlled feasibility trial comparing cephazolin with a placebo among low-risk mothers undergoing scheduled caesarean sections.

Aims  

The goal is to assess the impact of antibiotics on the infant microbiome and the onset of allergy through the first year of life.  

Patient recruitment and sample collection is now completed. Clinical observations pre/post-surgery, sociodemographic, dietary and allergy questionnaires were collected as well as biological samples such as amniotic fluid, breastmilk and infant stool at various time points.

This project is best suited for a PhD student who will use HPLC, full length 16S sequencing and learn/develop the bioinformatics/statistical tools to perform comparative analyses to determine whether antibiotics modify the metabolite/microbiota composition of infants and influence the onset of allergy during their first year of life.