Project title
Prenatal programming of respiratory epithelial progenitors and early postnatal respiratory disease.
Collaborators and funding
Telethon Kids Institute
Contact(s)
- Patricia Agudelo-romero patricia.agudeloromero@telethonkids.org.au
Project description and aims
Viral-induced wheezing and asthma in children have a significant burden in families and healthcare, with around 20% of all children developing recurrent respiratory disorders during childhood.
Our team have identified a vulnerable epithelial signature in young children susceptible to viral infections, which may have its developmental links in utero. Although there is a genetic predisposition to asthma (identified through GWAS), exposure and epigenetic regulation (through EWAS) play an important role in asthma development.
Poorly controlled maternal asthma and prenatal exposures to smoke and viral infections in pregnancy have been identified as risk factors to the development of respiratory disorders. We propose that wheezing in early life is related to an in utero epigenetic reprogramming that can be identified in the amnion, providing new opportunities for early disease prevention. One of our objectives is to determine whether maternal epigenetic imprinting due to smoke exposure is a risk factor for increasing the development of early-life respiratory diseases.
How is ABLeS supporting this work?
This work is supported through the production bioinformatics scheme provided by ABLeS. The supports includes unlimited temporary storage on scratch, 5 TB permenant storage and 50 KSUs per quarter.
Expected outputs enabled by participation in ABLeS
These details have been provided by project members at project initiation. For more information on the project, please consult the contact(s) or project links above.