DrKathleen Sim

My fascination with the trillions of microbes that inhabit us combined with my paediatric background led me to join the Paediatric Microbiome Research Group. I was intrigued by the condition which primarily affects premature infants - necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). This disease has a high mortality rate and can leave survivors with devastating long term effects. Unfortunately, its aetiology is ill defined, and as result, treatment is largely supportive. I was awarded an NIHR doctoral research fellowship to undertake a study which aimed to characterise the developing faecal microbiota of preterm infants and its relation to NEC. We discovered two microbial signatures that anticipated the development of NEC and are currently exploring this in greater detail with metagenomic analysis.