Association_of_pre_term_baby_intestinal_microbiota_with_necrotising_enterocolitis_and_sepsis
The study is exploring diet-microbe-host interaction in the gut of preterm infants born under 32 weeks gestation and how this impacts the risk of devastating diseases including necrotising enterocolitis and sepsis. We have some interesting associations from metagenomic data that suggests some bacteria might be involved in disease pathogenesis, but perhaps more promising is associations of specific bacteria with infant health. To advance this work, we need to move beyond species level and understand more detailed information at the stain level, especially relating to genetic capacity to utilise bioactive components of breast milk, antibiotic resistance genes, and toxin gene profile, which are known to vary from strain-to-strain. To this end, we have been routinely culturing bacteria from preterm infant stool samples collected from the neonatal intensive care unit and will sequence these genomes to understand their role in infant health and disease. This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/