The DOHaD Society of Australia and New Zealand (Developmental Origins of Health and Disease) is an initiative directly aligned with the global agenda to combat the devastation of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The integrated cross-disciplinary approach will build on the inextricable link between maternal, perinatal and early childhood factors and the risk of developing NCDs in later life. The mandate is for ‘disease prevention’ as the ultimate approach to reducing the burden of NCDs. Early life is a critical time of risk, but also a critical time of opportunity for promotion of health and prevention of future disease. The greatest potential for success lies in early intervention and there is already substantial evidence that initiatives to promote a ‘healthy start to life’ can reduce the risk of both early and later NCDs with wide social and economic benefits. Common risk factors mean common solutions. All modern diseases are associated with modern lifestyle changes, suggesting common risk factors for many NCDs. These risks include unhealthy dietary patterns, reduced physical activity, altered patterns of microbial exposure, tobacco smoking, harmful use of alcohol, and other environmental pollutants. A coordinated interdisciplinary approach is imperative to to mitigate the growing burden of a broad range of modern diseases, and to improve health in the new millennium. The DOHaD Society of Australia and New Zealand Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) is an initiative is directly aligned with the global agenda to combat the devastation of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The integrated cross-disciplinary approach will build on the inextricable link between maternal, perinatal and early childhood factors and the risk of developing NCDs in later life. The mandate is for ‘disease prevention’ as the ultimate approach to reducing the burden of NCDs. Early life is a critical time of risk, but also a critical time of opportunity for promotion of health and prevention of future disease. The greatest potential for success lies in early intervention and there is already substantial evidence that initiatives to promote a ‘healthy start to life’ can reduce the risk of both early and later NCDs with wide social and economic benefits. Common risk factors mean common solutions. All modern diseases are associated with modern lifestyle changes, suggesting common risk factors for many NCDs. These risks include unhealthy dietary patterns, reduced physical activity, altered patterns of microbial exposure, tobacco smoking, harmful use of alcohol, and other environmental pollutants. A coordinated interdisciplinary approach is imperative to to mitigate the growing burden of a broad range of modern diseases, and to improve health in the new millennium.
The DOHaD Society of Australia and New Zealand Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)
PRESIDENT
A/Prof Bev Muhlhausler completed her PhD in 2006, and is now Head of the Obesity and Metabolic Health Division and Deputy Director of the FOODplus Research Centre at the University of Adelaide. Bev’s primary interest is the perinatal origins of obesity and poor metabolic health, with a particular interest in determining the mechanisms through which maternal obesity and poor quality ‘Western-style’ diets predispose the offspring to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Email: beverly.muhlhausler@adelaide.edu.au Phone: +61 8 8313 0848
PAST-PRESIDENT Prof. Susan L. Prescott MD, PhD, is an internationally acclaimed pediatrician and immunologist. For more than 20 years she has been publishing paradigm-shifting research, casting light on the ways in which all life experiences - including contact with microbes - resonate through the immune system, setting the stage for subsequent health or disease. Her current work focuses on the interconnections between human health and planetary health - promoting holistic value systems for both ecological and social justice. She is the founding President of the DOHaD Society of ANZ, and is the current Director of the ORIGINS project, which examines how the environment influences all aspects of physical and mental health throughout life.
Email: susan.prescott@telethonkids.org.au Phone: +61 8 9340 8171
VICE-PRESIDENT A/Professor Nicolette Hodyl is passionate about helping people and organisations improve the health of individuals and communities. She established and leads Vertex Health, a Melbourne-based consultancy and strategic advisory platform that works with health and research organisations across Australia to enhance service delivery, develop and improve research programs and increase the impact of their health initiatives. Through engaging with patients, their communities and scientific and medical experts, Nicki creates pragmatic strategies that are shaped by expertise and respond to real-life needs and experiences. She has over 15 years research experience in scientific and clinical environments, largely focussed on improving pregnancy and child health.
Email: nicki@vertexhealth.com.au
SECRETARY Dr Hayley Dickinson, PhD, is committed to improving women’s health through education, self-care and challenging the status quo. Hayley has over 14 years of research experience in laboratory and preclinical science. Hayley recently stepped out of the traditional biomedical research structure and now works freelance.Hayley currently works with endota spa to inform and empower women to take steps that will improve their health and wellbeing, and that of their families. Hayley recently founded Eat For Baby, a startup that will provide home-delivered food meeting the changing nutritional requirements of women before, during and pregnancy.Hayley’s vision is for a closer, more responsive integration of research and healthcare in women and children’s health.Email: thescienceofpregnancy@gmail.com
TREASURER Professor Mark Vickers is based at the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland. Dr Vickers’ research focus is on the effect of alterations in early life nutrition on the later health and wellbeing of offspring with a particular focus on the development of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Dr Vickers has established a number of preclinical models utilizing the paradigm of altered early-life nutrition (including both under- and overnutrition) to examine the mechanistic basis of programming during critical periods of developmental plasticity. Dr Vickers also investigates the potential for reversibility of developmental programming via both nutritional and pharmacologic interventions and was one of the first to show that developmental programming was potentially reversible with interventions in the early life period.
Email: m.vickers@auckland.ac.nz Phone: +64 9 923 6687
SA REP Dr. Prabha Andraweera (MBBS, PhD) is a NMHRC Peter Doherty BioMedical Fellow in the Discipline of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Adelaide Medical School and the Robinson Research Institute at the University of Adelaide. Her current research focuses on genetic and intrauterine environmental effects on cardiovascular risk after adverse pregnancy outcomes in women and children.Contact details
Email: prabha.andraweera@adelaide.edu.au Phone: +61 8 8313 4086
NT REP
Dr Gurmeet Singh is the director of the Life Course Studies which includes the Aboriginal Birth Cohort (ABC), the oldest and largest cohort of Aboriginal people in Australasia. She has dedicated over 19 years to Indigenous health in the Northern Territory (NT), in her roles as a Paediatrician, a Researcher and Academic capacity with the Northern Territory Medical Program. Her main area of interest is the relationship of early life factors to later health and chronic disease, particularly renal disease.
Email: Gurmeet.Singh@menzies.edu.au
VIC/TAS REP Professor Mary Wlodek is a Professor in the Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne. Professor Wlodek graduated with a BSc(Hons) and MSc from the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. She was awarded her PhD in Physiology from Monash University, Australia. She is a global leader in developmental origins physiological research and Head of the Fetal, Postnatal & Adult Physiology & Disease Laboratory. She is renowned for her successful experimental model that mimics human growth profiles, organ deficits and phenotypes observed in babies born small who are susceptible to adult diseases. Her laboratory is recognised as performing complex whole animal physiological studies exploring of the adult, pregnancy and transgenerational consequences of being born small. Critical to translational outcomes is the incorporation of various innovative treatments and interventions including nutritional (cross-fostering, diet), exercise, pregnancy, transgenerational and impact of stress and alcohol during pregnancy.
Email: m.wlodek@unimelb.edu.au
QLD REP
Dr James Cuffe is a lecturer and head of the placental endocrinology laboratory within the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland. His research focuses on the role of the placenta in mediating maternal physiological adaptations of pregnancy a well as fetal development and offspring health. Dr Cuffe explores how factors such as diet and stress in pregnancy contribute to a range of pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia and thyroid dysfunction and disease in offspring including endocrine dysfunction, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and renal disease
NZ REP Dr Clare Reynolds (BSc, PhD) is a senior research fellow at the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland. Her research focus includes metabolic inflammation and the role of maternal diet during pregnancy on the long term health outcomes of offspring during adulthood. Dr Reynolds uses small animal models and immunological, biochemical and molecular methodologies to address her research questions. She is currently funded by a HRC Sir Charles Hercus Research Fellowship and Emerging Researcher Grant.
Email: c.reynolds@auckland.ac.nz
SOCIAL MEDIA
A/Prof Jeff Craig leads the MCRI Early Life Epigenetics Research Group. He has established a number of early life cohorts, many of them involving twins. He focuses on epigenetic changes associated with early development and the link between environmental factors, development and disease. Email: jeff.craig@mcri.edu.au
ECR REP Dr Erin McGillick completed her PhD in fetal physiology at the University of South Australia and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Monash University. Erin's research investigates the effect of pregnancy complications on lung development and the transition from fetal to newborn life. This work is directed towards gaining greater understanding of the fundamental physiology underpinning the transition at birth in compromised newborns. This work aims to provide pre-clinical evidence to better inform management of newborns to reduce both the short- and long-term burden of disease associated with obstetric subpopulations.
Email: erin.mcgillick@hudson.org.au
Past Council Members• Karen Best
• Ralph Nanan
• Peter Davies
• Amy Wooldridge
International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: DOHaD This international learned society aims to promote research into the fetal and developmental origins of health and disease. The DOHaD concept is bringing new insights into the pathogenesis of disease. We now know that poor fetal growth and small size at birth are followed by increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. This has led to the hypothesis that these disorders originate through unbalanced nutrition in utero and during infancy. There is a range of experimental models for investigating the underlying biological mechanisms, and DOHaD is now a burgeoning research area in both basic and clinical sciences. Research into developmental origins of health and disease now involves scientists from many backgrounds. This society promotes cohesion and shared knowledge between groups working in different specialties and different countries. Click here for International Website.