Congenital disorders
Early origins of health and disease
Could a virus in the womb lead to birth defects?
Led by Dr Mattia Gerli, University College London
Birth defects affect thousands of families and are a leading cause of death in newborn babies. Yet, for most of these conditions, doctors still cannot explain why they happen. Some infections caught during pregnancy, such as rubella, cytomegalovirus or Zika, are known to harm the developing baby, but current tests can only look for a small number of viruses and may miss hidden infections.
In this project, Mattia will utilise a highly sensitive test which is able to detect thousands of different viruses at once. They will apply it to samples of amniotic fluid - the fluid surrounding the baby in the womb - which is already collected for medical reasons during many pregnancies. By comparing pregnancies with unexplained birth defects to controls, Mattia aims to discover whether hidden infections play an important role. This knowledge could help doctors better understand, predict, and explain these conditions to expecting parents.