Publications by authors named "M W Sears"
Article Synopsis
- - The CHILD Cohort Study is a long-term Canadian research project tracking the health and development of infants from pregnancy until adulthood, focusing on how early life environments affect disease outcomes like asthma and developmental issues.
- - The study involves detailed measurements and data collection including biological samples, environmental assessments, and psychosocial factors, with a strong participant retention rate over the years.
- - A sub-cohort was created during the COVID-19 pandemic to examine its impact on families, and the next major assessment phase will occur from 2022 to 2025, contributing valuable insights into chronic diseases and health complexities.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the impact of the human milk microbiota (HMM) on the long-term health of children, particularly focusing on asthma and allergic conditions like atopy.
- Researchers followed 885 mothers and their children from birth to age 5, linking HMM composition to the mothers' genetics and children's health outcomes.
- Findings suggest that certain bacterial communities in human milk, especially decreased diversity and increased Lawsonella, are correlated with higher rates of childhood atopy and asthma, highlighting the genetic influence on HMM composition.
Article Synopsis
- This study explores the relationship between maternal genetics, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), and respiratory health in infants fed human milk.
- Researchers quantified 19 HMOs from 980 mothers and identified genetic markers linked to HMOs on several chromosomes, including notable findings on chromosomes 19 and 3.
- The study suggests that certain HMOs may help reduce the risk of respiratory issues, like recurrent wheezing, in preschoolers, depending on their genetic predispositions.
Background: As a mega-biobank linked to a national healthcare system, the Million Veteran Program (MVP) can directly improve the health care of participants. To determine the feasibility and outcomes of returning medically actionable genetic results to MVP participants, the program launched the MVP Return of Actionable Results (MVP-ROAR) Study, with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) as an exemplar actionable condition.
Methods: The MVP-ROAR Study consists of a completed single-arm pilot phase and an ongoing randomized clinical trial (RCT), in which MVP participants are recontacted and invited to receive clinical confirmatory gene sequencing testing and a telegenetic counseling intervention.
Divergent maturational patterns of the infant bacterial and fungal gut microbiome in the first year of life are associated with inter-kingdom community dynamics and infant nutrition.
Microbiome
February 2024
Background: The gut microbiome undergoes primary ecological succession over the course of early life before achieving ecosystem stability around 3 years of age. These maturational patterns have been well-characterized for bacteria, but limited descriptions exist for other microbiota members, such as fungi. Further, our current understanding of the prevalence of different patterns of bacterial and fungal microbiome maturation and how inter-kingdom dynamics influence early-life microbiome establishment is limited.
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