Programming the Infant Microbiome: Impacting Immune Health Later in Life

Dr Ruairi Robertson obtained a BSc in Human Nutrition from University College Dublin. He subsequently conducted a PhD in Microbiology within the APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork and as a visiting researcher to Harvard University Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital where he examined the role of dietary omega-3 fatty acids on the developing microbiome, the gut-brain axis and metabolic health outcomes. Dr Robertson is currently a lecturer in microbiome science at The Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London. 

Dr Robertson’s research uses both preclinical models and clinical cohorts. He is using preclinical models to examine the influence of the gut microbiome on the training of intestinal immunity in early life and the subsequent susceptibility to infection. Concurrently, he is conducting several large randomized clinical trials in Zimbabwe and Zambia investigating the influence of the maternal and infant gut microbiomes on child growth in the context of child malnutrition. These studies are aiming to identify novel microbiome biomarkers and predictors of child undernutrition in addition to novel nutritional and pharmaceutical therapies targeting the gut microbiome in child undernutrition.

Dr Rina Sanghavi, MD, MBA, FAAP, NASPGHAN-F is a Pediatric Neurogastroenterologist and a Professor of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center/Children’s Health, Children’s Medical Center Dallas. She practices in the division of pediatric gastroenterology and has special expertise in motility issues, including anorectal malformations, constipation, functional GI disorders, and irritable bowel syndrome. She is the Director of Pediatric Neurogastroenterology. She has helped establish the Aerodigestive Clinic, the Chronic Abdominal Pain Program, the Motility and Biofeedback Program, and the Center for Anorectal Malformations and Pelvic Disorders at her institution. She holds several administrative and leadership positions, including President of the Medical Dental Staff, Chair of the Pediatric Business Strategy Group, and Director of the Office of Faculty Engagement. She is also Chair of the Professional Development Committee for the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (NASPGHAN). 

She is an advocate for women leaders in medicine, equity, and empathic leadership. She is passionate about marrying the business aspect of a medical practice with efficiency and promoting wellness within clinicians, especially in an academic environment. She has been invited for lectures and talks on neurogastroenterology, nutrition, and leadership nationally and internationally. In addition, she has also been recognized with several awards, including the all-important Patient’s Choice Awards and is recognized as a 5-time winner of ‘Best Doctor in Dallas’ by the Dallas Fort Worth/North Texas Child Magazine and D magazine. She lives with her husband of 20 years and her two teenage children in a suburb of Texas. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, gardening, music, and learning new languages.

Dr Lisa Renzi-Hammond earned her BS, MS and doctorate degrees from the Psychology Department at the University of Georgia. While at the University of Georgia, Dr Renzi-Hammond specialized in visual neuroscience and neurological development and studied the ways in which implementing behavioral changes influences vision system function, as well as risk for acquired ocular and neurological diseases.

Dr Renzi-Hammond completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin as a member of three different disciplinary groups: the Center for Perceptual Systems, the Institute for Neuroscience, and the Nutrition Sciences Department. Dr Renzi-Hammond also served as a visiting scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, MA, where she was a member of the Carotenoids in Health Laboratory. 

Following her graduate and post-graduate training, Dr Renzi-Hammond returned to the University of Georgia as faculty, where she founded the Human Biofactors Laboratory and published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the topic of nutrition and visual and neurological function. She has presented this research in a wide variety of national and international venues. She is currently the co-director of the Cognitive Aging Research and Education (CARE Center) and an adjunct associate professor in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program in the Department of Psychology at the University of Georgia.