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HEIndividual fellowship2023–2026

MOM2CHILD · Impact of maternal nutritional status and microbiota on child anthropometric and metabolic development

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2023-09-01 → 2026-08-31
EU contribution
€293,446
Participants
3
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Impact of maternal nutritional status and microbiota on child anthropometric and metabolic development

The MOM2CHILD project studies how conditions during pregnancy and early life influence a child’s growth and risk of metabolic diseases later in life. It focuses on three key factors: maternal nutrition, the community of microorganisms living in the body (the microbiota), and biological mechanisms that can regulate gene activity without changing the DNA sequence (epigenetic regulation). The first thousand days of life, from conception to two years of age, are a critical period for long-term health. Yet many populations today face a “double burden of malnutrition”, where undernutrition coexists with increasing rates of obesity and metabolic disorders. By analysing data from two long-term mother–child cohorts in different geographical and socioeconomic settings, the project aims to identify both common biological mechanisms and context-specific patterns that link maternal health to child development. It examines how the nutritional and metabolic status of pregnant women is associated with the composition of their microbiota at different body sites, how these early exposures relate to children’s growth and metabolic profiles, and whether lasting biological marks on gene regulation may help explain these links. By combining clinical data, growth measurements, and molecular information, the project seeks to provide a comprehensive picture of how early environments shape lifelong metabolic health and how prevention could start as early as pregnancy. The project concludes that maternal nutritional status is associated with microbiota differences in microbiota composition at multiple body sites (fecal and oral), and that the metabolic status is associations with slight differences in microbiota composition at the vaginal site. These findings highlight the potential of prenatal and early-life interventions to improve lifelong metabolic health.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Both overnutrition and undernutrition shape the capacities of the body to process food (double burden of malnutrition), and are thus important determinants of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions including high blood sugar or excess body fat, and diet-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes or heart diseases. The first 1000 years of life (from conception to second birthday) are considered a key period of life where the metabolic capacities are adjusted. We hypothesize that during this period, exposures such as the nutritional and metabolic status of the pregnant mother, her gut and vaginal microbiota, the child’s gut microbiota and other clinical parameters linked to pregnancy, delivery and early life, have an impact on how the metabolism develops. The objective of the proposed research is to study the contribution of prenatal/early life exposures on the anthropometric and metabolic development of the child, and whether these effects could be mediated by epigenetic changes. For this, I will spend 24 months in the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, for the outgoing phase (Prof. Pascale Vonaesch) followed by a returning phase of 12 months in FISABIO, Spain (Dr. Pilar Francino). This collaboration gives me the unique opportunity to work on samples and data from two birth cohorts of under-, normally and over-nourished pregnant mothers and their offspring, both in a low and a high-income country (Lao PDR and Spain). I will bring my expertise in epidemiology and clinical research, as well as specific knowledge and skills in analysing vaginal microbiota data, to the host and associated partner. In return, I will dig into new concepts and acquire advanced skills in genomics (from bench work to bioinformatics), community analysis, epigenetics, nutrition-related diseases, as well as transferable and complementary skills, in order to enhance my career’s perspectives. This interdisciplinary research will generate new insights in both basic science and public health.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • FUNDACION PARA EL FOMENTO DE LA INVESTIGACION SANITARIA Y BIOMEDICA DE LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA · ValenciaCoordinatorSpain
  • EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH · ZuerichSwitzerland
  • UNIVERSITE DE LAUSANNE · LAUSANNESwitzerland

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union