Reproductive Epidemiology
By combining expertise in epidemiology, psychology, genetics, and maternal fetal medicine we will measure, monitor, and maximise longitudinal health outcomes associated with prenatal risk factors.
Our group monitors and evaluates uptake and outcomes of current and emerging genetic technologies, particularly related to prenatal diagnosis and population screening for genetic disorders. We also study the use and communication of genetic information in families.
Another area of investigation is the integration of genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and socio-demographic factors in prenatal exposures such as assisted reproductive technologies (ART) or alcohol, and the impact this has on the health and wellbeing of infants, children, and young adults.
Researchers are skilled in epidemiology, psychology, maternal and fetal medicine, health services research and the science of genetics, as well as genetic counselling. Using these approaches, the team applies a detailed knowledge of genetics and genomics to the research and undertakes collaborative projects in many areas. Having monitored prenatal diagnostic testing in Victoria for over 40 years, the group has published research that has informed service provision and policy and provided relevant, accurate information to the community.
The extensive research on prenatal diagnosis has facilitated a new study, following up on the developmental, social-emotional, and health outcomes of children diagnosed with and without a genomic variant before birth.
Our team has been publishing world-first findings on the health of young adults conceived by ART, demonstrating the overall safety of the procedures. We are also examining the potential lifestyle and environmental factors that may be associated with male infertility and what effect that has on the health and well-being of their children conceived by ART.
In another major study, researchers are examining the health and wellbeing of children exposed to low-to-moderate levels of alcohol in pregnancy using novel, early markers of development, while considering maternal and infant genetics and epigenetics and lifestyle and other health-related determinants of child development.
Group Leaders
Group Members
Our projects
Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and the long-term health of offspring
Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) were pioneered in Victoria and so people conceived by IVF are now up to 40 years of age. There is a widely held belief that common adult-onset disorders (particularly cardiovascular and respiratory diseases) begin in early life, possibly even before birth. Children born following the use of ART might therefore be in a specific risk category because of the techniques used to enable successful pregnancies. The aim of our research into young adults conceived by ART has been to investigate their long-term health outcomes.
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Australian Hand Difference Register (AHDR)
The Australian Hand Difference Register (AHDR) is a database of children born with a hand difference and/or arm difference. Researchers in the Reproductive Epidemiology group manage the AHDR and there is a collaboration with clinicians from both the Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery Department at The Royal Children’s Hospital and hospitals around Australia.
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Australian Male Infertility Exposure (AMIE) Study
This study aims to determine the lifestyle and environmental factors that put men at risk of infertility. About 30,000 couples seek help to have a baby each year in Australia. In half of the couples needing help, it is the man who has a fertility issue. The causes of male infertility are still a mystery. We will ask 2,000 men from IVF Clinics around Australia to complete a survey so we can get a better understanding of the lifestyle and environmental factors that are associated with unexplained male infertility. This study is funded by the Medical Research Futures Fund Emerging Priorities and Consumer Driven Research Initiative (EPCD000007).
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Childhood outcomes of genomic copy number variants: The PrenatAL Microarray cohort (PALM study)
The PALM study will follow up on the health outcomes of children whose mothers had a particular genetic test during their pregnancy.
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Prenatal screening and diagnosis for fetal chromosome conditions
We manage the Victorian Prenatal Diagnosis Database (VPDD), which collects state-wide data on prenatal diagnosis for fetal chromosome conditions each year and publishes an annual report for use by clinicians and scientists. This data collection represents one of the longest-running population-based prenatal diagnosis data collections in the world.
Read more...Alcohol Use in Pregnancy (AQUA): What questions should we be asking?
This research, funded by NHMRC, has compared the effects of low or moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy with not drinking any alcohol. The study recruited 1,570 participants who completed a questionnaire in each trimester of pregnancy, including a specifically developed set of questions on alcohol intake. We collected questionnaire data and completed various clinical assessments on children at one and two years of age. The children are currently being followed up at six to seven years of age, having further neurodevelopmental assessments, 3D facial imaging and brain MRI.
Funding
- Aussie Hands Foundation Inc
- Australasian Foundation for Plastic Surgery
- McBain Family Trust
- McNally Family Foundation
- Medical Research Future Fund
- National Health and Medical Research Council
Collaborations
National
- Deakin University
- Eastern Health
- Healthy Male (Andrology Australia)
- Hudson Institute of Medical Research
- La Trobe University
- Melbourne IVF
- Mercy Health
- Monash Health
- Monash IVF
- Monash Ultrasound for Women
- Monash University
- The Royal Women’s Hospital
- The University of Melbourne
- Western Health
- ANZAC Research Institute
- Curtin University
- Fertility Specialists of Western Australia
- Flinders Medical Centre
- IVF Australia
- James Cook University
- Perth Children's Hospital
- Queensland Children's Hospital
- Queensland Fertility Group
- Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick
- Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick
- Telethon Kids Institute
- The Children's Hospital at Westmead
- The University of NSW
- The University of Sydney
- The University of Western Australia
- The Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide
International
- Aarhus University, Denmark
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA
- Newcastle University, UK
- UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UK
- University of Surrey, UK
- University of Turku, Finland
Featured publications
- Assisted reproductive technologies are associated with limited epigenetic variation at birth that largely resolves by adulthood. Novakovic B, Lewis S, Halliday J, Kennedy J, Burgner DP, Czajko A, Kim B, Sexton-Oates A, Juonala M, Hammarberg K, Amor DJ, Doyle LW, Ranganathan S, Welsh L, Cheung M, McBain J, McLachlan R, Saffery R. Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 2;10(1):3922. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11929-9. PMID: 31477727; PMCID: PMC6718382.
- Health of adults aged 22 to 35 years conceived by assisted reproductive technology. Halliday J, Lewis S, Kennedy J, Burgner DP, Juonala M, Hammarberg K, Amor DJ, Doyle LW, Saffery R, Ranganathan S, Welsh L, Cheung M, McBain J, Hearps SJC, McLachlan R. Fertil Steril. 2019 Jul;112(1):130-139. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.03.001. Epub 2019 Apr 16. PMID: 31003618.
- Offering pregnant women different levels of genetic information from prenatal chromosome microarray: a prospective study. Halliday JL, Muller C, Charles T, Norris F, Kennedy J, Lewis S, Meiser B, Donath S, Stark Z, McGillivray G, Menezes M, Smith SK, Forster D, Walker S, Pertile M, Amor DJ. Eur J Hum Genet. 2018 Apr;26(4):485-494. doi: 10.1038/s41431-017-0084-0. Epub 2018 Feb 6. PMID: 29410473; PMCID: PMC5891486.
- Population-based trends in prenatal screening and diagnosis for aneuploidy: a retrospective analysis of 38 years of state-wide data. Hui L, Muggli EE, Halliday JL. BJOG. 2016 Jan;123(1):90-7. doi: 10.1111/1471-0528.13488. Epub 2015 Jun 25. PMID: 26108969.
- Association Between Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Craniofacial Shape of Children at 12 Months of Age. Muggli E, Matthews H, Penington A, Claes P, O'Leary C, Forster D, Donath S, Anderson PJ, Lewis S, Nagle C, Craig JM, White SM, Elliott EJ, Halliday J. JAMA Pediatr. 2017 Aug 1;171(8):771-780. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.0778. PMID: 28586842; PMCID: PMC6583660.