Dr Rebecca Vanders is an Early-Mid Career Research Fellow, whose research has focused on improving health outcomes for women during pregnancy and for their babies by employing strategies to boost the maternal immune response during pregnancy.

Dr Vanders has identified that during pregnancy, the maternal antiviral immune response is attenuated, increasing disease severity following respiratory virus infection in pregnant women, especially in women with asthma as an underlying comorbidity.

She has also identified an immune therapy that can restore maternal antiviral immunity during influenza infections. Her research has prompted an editorial on the link between asthma and pregnancy and abnormal anti-viral activity, an interview and article with “Respiratory Update,” and several publications have won best publication of the year.

Dr Vanders’ recent research is focused on the developmental origins of health and disease, looking particularly at ways in which nutrition during pregnancy can reduce the risk of chronic disease and improve the overall health outcomes for both the mother, as well as infants and children.

In particular, Dr Vanders’ is working to develop strategies to improve iron intake during pregnancy, to reduce the risk of cognitive impairment, anaemia and respiratory illness in children.

She is also working on the use of pre- and pro-biotics as a treatment during pregnancy with obesity to ‘reprogram’ the foetal microbiome to reduce the incidence of obesity in children.