Inflammatory Origins
Our goal is to understand susceptibility to infection and inflammation and how it contributes to cardiometabolic risk throughout life.
Inflammatory Origins is a highly productive research group that aims to address fundamental epidemiological, clinical, and mechanistic knowledge gaps broadly related to childhood infection, inflammation, and cardiometabolic risk.
We incorporate a range of methodological approaches, including population-level data linkage, longitudinal cohort studies, mechanistic studies, and intervention trials.
Our goal is to understand the epidemiological determinants and mechanisms of:
- Differential susceptibility to infection and inflammation.
- How infection and inflammation contribute to cardiometabolic risk across the life course.
By actively collaborating on campus, nationally and internationally, our researchers hope to reduce severe infection in children and cardiovascular disease in the adults they become.
More information
Our projects
YoungLives Study
Do you want to help us understand the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on young people? This study will explore young people’s physical health and emotional wellbeing through the pandemic. The findings are important, even if there are no or few further COVID-19 cases in Victoria.
Data Linkage Studies
MODIFY (Maternal and Offspring Disease from InFancy to Youth)
MODIFY is an international data linkage study that investigates how exposures occurring during pregnancy, birth and early childhood are associated with susceptibility to and severity of paediatric infection in children. We are investigating how factors such as breastfeeding offset these risks.
iPOP (international Perinatal Outcomes in the Pandemic)
iPOP is a collaborative global study to investigate the impact of pandemic lockdowns on preterm birth and stillbirth and assess the underlying causative factors. Our research will provide critical new information to shape prenatal care strategies throughout (and well beyond) the pandemic.
Heritable and environmental determinants of infection
This project uses twin and sibling epidemiological methods and population-level linked data to explore the relative contribution of genetic and environmental determinants to hospitalization with infection in childhood.
Big data, small patients
This is a Victorian statewide data linkage study to investigate sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with differential patterns of antibiotic use and how prior antibiotic use is related to hospital admission.
Infection, inflammation and cardiometabolic risk
VASCFIND (VAScular Changes following Infectious Disease)
Cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke) affects adults, but the ‘hardening of the arteries’ (atherosclerosis) begins in childhood. Atherosclerosis arises partly because inflammation over decades damages the wall of the artery. Conditions that increase inflammation, such as common infections, have been suggested to worsen atherosclerosis and possibly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Most infections occur in childhood and our group is interested in how infection and inflammation might affect the arteries and the later risk of cardiovascular disease.
The overall aim of the VASCFIND study is therefore to investigate the effects of acute infection on arteries and vascular health in school-age children. We will examine for the first time how arterial structure and function change in children following infection and whether there are alterations in the blood, such as differences in cholesterol or chemicals that vary with inflammation. The findings will provide important new information relating to the childhood origins of cardiovascular disease and offer possibilities for earlier prevention.
Early life determinants of cardiovascular risk: The Barwon Infant Study (BIS)
This study, representative of the general population, is measuring markers of cardiovascular risk at four weeks, four years and ten years of age, and investigates what determines heightened risk. Areas of particular interest include maternal and in-utero factors, perinatal inflammation, and childhood infection. BIS is one of the few studies in the world to have repeated assessment of cardiovascular risk from birth onwards.
Assessing Preclinical Phenotypes of Adverse Cardiovascular and Metabolic Risk in Paediatric Cystic Fibrosis: The CV-CF Project
This study investigates if children with cystic fibrosis (CF) have early changes to blood vessels, biomarkers and immune system that may lead to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adulthood. These measured differences, in blood vessels, biomarkers, anthropometrics and immune systems, make up what the project describes as an “adverse preclinical cardiovascular phenotype”. This preclinical phenotype is the combination of factors in children, which in adults would represent the burden of atherosclerosis, high-risk CVD states, and known risk factors for recurrent CVD.
If children with CF have changes that suggest they may be at higher risk of CVD in the future, this will show if our current nutritional goals are sufficient, and guide changes to surveillance and prevention of CVD in adulthood. This study will have a direct impact on how we manage CF, and how we think about CVD risk in children prone to inflammation.
Cardiovascular risk phenotypes in children with chronic inflammatory conditions (CUPID)
Inflammation underpins the development of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. SPIN is investigating whether children with chronic inflammatory conditions (inflammatory bowel disease, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and skin inflammatory conditions) have evidence of increased cardiovascular risk.
Obesity research
COBRA (Childhood Overweight BioRepository of Australia)
Inflammatory Origins work with this unique cohort of children and adolescents with obesity. Ongoing studies include the investigation of cardiovascular and metabolic risk, immunity and inflammation, and the effects of changes in BMI.
iGrowWell
iGrowWell is an innovative project that will address key knowledge gaps in understanding how modifiable, non-traditional risk factors (including psychological factors), increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among youth affected by obesity. This knowledge will provide evidence for the Youth Researcher led co-design of an effective electronic-based intervention.
The project introduces a fundamental change, focusing on health, with inflammation as the outcome, rather than weight alone. This project aims to centre the perspectives of youth and will consider cultural and social factors in the co-design of an intervention for youth affected by obesity.
Oral Health research
The use of intraoral 3-D scanning to measure and quantify dental caries and enamel hypomineralisation.
Three-dimensional scanning promises the considerable potential for recording and monitoring oral health. Rapid developments in 3D technologies will expand its application to a much broader range of clinical and research settings, including caries detection and automatized diagnostics.
Based at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne and in collaboration with industry partners 3Shape Trios, this project will evaluate the validity of an intra-oral scanner to measure the presence and severity of dental caries and developmental defects in children of different ages in both primary and secondary dentition.
The first 2,000 days: Implications for dental health, disease risk and intervention
The first 2,000 days of life, from conception to school commencement, are recognised as a key period for the determination of future susceptibility to a broad range of illnesses. Early life is a time of intense development, marked by a never again repeated phase of rapid adaptability in the developing foetus/child. Environmental cues, from nutrition to attachment with caregivers, help guide this development. However, adverse events and exposures early in life, such as malnutrition, chemical toxins and psychological and physiological stress, can influence the future response to stress and lead to ‘biological embedding’ or programming of future disease.
Leveraging the extensive early life data from our LifeCourse platform, including MISBAIR and the Barwon Infant Study, this project seeks to understand the mechanistic process that drives how oral health is influenced by events and exposures in early life.
Early Childhood Caries: From Phenotype to Prevention
The Barwon Health Wide Smiles program is a unique community oral health promotion initiative extending beyond the Geelong and Colac region into rural areas including Mortlake, Apollo Bay, Cobden, and Terang.
The overall aim of this project is to leverage extensive clinical data collected through Wide Smiles, a Barwon Health oral health promotion program, to understand and classify patterns of dental caries in children and in response to preventive interventions. In addition, this project will explore the influence of various factors, including rurality and area-level disadvantage on caries experience and use novel data analytics to develop prediction.
Infant2Child: Optimising nutrition in early life to reduce childhood dental caries (hyperlink to Infant2Child webpage)
Dietary and dental habits are established early in life, particularly during the first 2000 days; a unique, time-limited opportunity for early intervention. In partnership with The Melbourne Dental School, the University of Melbourne and Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, this project seeks to provide early oral health promotion through INFANT, an early-life nutrition intervention that is currently being rolled out across Victoria.
The program offers a unique opportunity to harness synergies between preventive strategies targeting diet-related chronic disease including obesity, diabetes and dental caries to effectively and efficiently improve both oral and general health outcomes.
Oral health in children with cystic fibrosis: An observational cohort study
Children with cystic fibrosis (CF) have been reported to have lower levels of dental caries, but higher levels of enamel defects and gingivitis than healthy children. The role of cariogenic diets and frequent antibiotic therapy in this observation is unclear.
The aim of this project is to explore the oral health of children with CF, the impact of dietary free sugar intake and antibiotic therapy, and to develop strategies to improve oral health.
Dental effects of Doxycycline using in early childhood
Doxycycline is an antibiotic used for the treatment of S. aureus and rickettsial infection. Current guidelines recommend avoiding use in children under eight years because of the risk of teeth pigmentation. However, previous studies of short-course doxycycline have shown no significant issues. This study is a collaboration between The Melbourne Dental School, Murdoch Children's and Infectious Diseases at the Royal Children's Hospital.
The study involves identifying patients who received doxycycline between ages one and eight, getting consent for a dental examination, then collecting data on the patient's medical history, dose and duration of doxycycline use, sign for doxycycline use and results of the dental review.
Mechanistic studies
The Inflammatory Origins group also (co)-leads several mechanistic studies looking at early life infection, inflammation and cardiometabolic risk. These include detailed analysis of small molecules (metabolomics) and lipids (lipidomics) in several cohort studies both in Australia and internationally.
Funding
- National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
- National Institute of Health (NIH)
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research Rapid Response COVID-19 (CIHR)
- Medical Research Council (MRC)
- Jam and Jelly Foundation
- DHB Trustees
- Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)
- Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI)
- Monash Health
- Dutch Heart Foundation
Collaborations
Institutions
- Baker IDI
- University of Queensland
- Radboud amc
- Integrative Epidemiology Uni, Bristol University
- Turku Uni
- Arhus University
- University College Dublin
- UC San Diego
Studies/Cohorts
- Barwon Infant Study
- LSAC Child Health CheckPoint
- VITALITY
- ALSPAC (UK)
- Born in Bradford (UK)
- Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns
- STRIP (Finland)
- Northern Finnish Birth Cohort
- UK BioBank
- MoBA (Norway)
- DNBC (Denmark)
- Drakenstein Child Health Study (S Africa)
- CHILD study (Canada)
Featured publications
Todd IMF, Miller JE, Rowe S, Burgner DP*, Sullivan SG*(2021). Changes in infection-related hospitalizations in children following pandemic restrictions: an interrupted time-series analysis of total population data. Int J Epidemiol 2021 [PMID: 34056664]
Miller JE, Goldacre R, Moore HC, Zeltzer J Knight M, Morris C, Nowell S, Wood R, Carter KW, Fathima P, de Klerk N, Strunk T, Li J, Nassar N, Pedersen LH, Burgner DP (2020). Mode of birth and risk of infection-related hospitalisation in childhood: A population cohort study of 7.17 million births from 4 high-income countries. PLoS Med 2020 [PMID:33211696]
Tosif S, Neeland, MR, Sutton P, Licciardi PV, Sarkar S, Selva KJ, Do LAH, Donato C, Toh ZQ, Higgins R, Van de Sandt C, Lemke MM, Lee CY, Shoffner SK, Flanagan KL, Arnold, KB, Mordant FL, Mulholland K, Bines J, Dohle K, Pellicci DG, Curtis N, McNab S, Steer A, Saffery R, Subbarao K, Chung AW, Kedzierska K, Burgner DP*, Crawford NW*(2020). Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in three of parents with symptomatic COVID-19. Nat Commun 2020 [PMID: 33177504]
Liu RS, Mensah FK, Carlin J, Edwards B, Ranganathan S, Cheung M, Dwyer T, Saffery R, Magnussen CG, Juonala M*, Wake M*, Burgner DP*(2017). Socioeconomic position is associated with carotid intima-media thickness in mid-childhood: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. J Am Heart Assoc 2017 [PMID: 28862928]
Silva M, Kilpatrick N, Craig JM, Manton DJ, Leong P, Burgner DP, Scurrah KJ (2019). Genetic and Early Life Environmental Influences on Dental Caries Risk: A Twin Study, Pediatrics, 143 (5) e20183499, doi 10.1542/peds.2018-3499