August 23, 2024
Dr. Ruchi Tiwari receives NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship to study the association of maternal factors and child neurodevelopment in Kenya
Congratulations to Dr. Ruchi Tiwari for receiving an NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship Award that aims to enhance the research training of promising postdoctoral candidates who have the potential to become productive, independent investigators. This funding will allow her to continue training at Global WACh under the mentorship of Dr. Christine McGrath (Associate Professor, Global Health and Adjunct Associate Professor, Epidemiology) and faculty within the Gut Health and Child Survival scientific priority area.
Dr. Tiwari plays a leading role in pediatric studies on gut health and malnutrition in Kenya alongside investigators at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). These studies involve understanding the effects of breast-milk derived nutrition supplements (human milk oligosaccharides or HMOs) on infant health outcomes. She will leverage her skills to assess how maternal factors that can be changed or controlled (e.g. stress, infection, and inadequate nutrition during and after pregnancy) influence child neurodevelopment at 2 years of age, with an important focus on the difference in the composition of HMOs by those factors.
Dr. Tiwari’s project titled, “Association between adverse maternal factors and neurodevelopmental outcomes among children in Kenya,” is nested in the Tunza Mwana study (PI: McGrath) that is evaluating the association between maternal HIV infection and infant health outcomes through breast-milk mediated pathways, which can help practitioners determine the best possible care for HIV positive mothers and their children. The study enrolled women living with and without HIV during their antenatal visits between November 2020 and November 2021 from two major health facilities in Western Kenya. The cohort along with their infants completed 24-month follow-up visit in March 2023.
Dr. Tiwari will also conduct new analyses related to HMO profiles of mothers with adverse maternal characteristics and seek to understand if maternal characteristics during pregnancy and lactation affect child neurodevelopment through differences in breastmilk composition. This project will provide new insights on modifiable maternal factors and child neurodevelopment in Kenya and inform ways to prevent or reverse the neurodevelopmental consequences of maternal environmental health disparities by highlighting the potential mechanisms of neurodevelopmental impairment in this population.
Identifying modifiable determinants of neurodevelopmental outcomes is important for all children and is particularly important for those at elevated risk for neurodevelopmental deficits due to adverse maternal factors. Understanding the associations between maternal factors, HMOs, and child neurodevelopment will help to inform interventions to improve brain health and reduce risk of neurodevelopmental impairment by supporting breastfeeding and optimizing HMO composition and maternal health. Researchers from KEMRI, the University of California San Diego, and University of California Los Angeles are collaborators of the study.