Page 67 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017

Foreword
Introductory Messages
study is funded by the International AIDS Society (CIPHER) to follow a cohort of 300 HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected pregnant women through pregnancy, until their infants are two years old. The Siyakhula study will evaluate how maternal HIV status and early life factors (breast milk and secondary infections) modify relationships between HIV exposure and key developmental outcomes, including infant growth, cognitive development and immune function. To this end, researchers are monitoring infants’ growth and neurodevelopment, and are taking matched maternal- child blood samples, placenta, breast milk and faecal samples to evaluate immunological function, the microbiome, and metabolome.
The Siyakhula study brings together researchers from a number of departments at UP, namely Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical Immunology, Family Medicine, and Human Nutrition, as well as two South African Medical Research Council Units: the Maternal and Infant Health Care Strategies Unit and the Health Systems Research Unit. Researchers are collaborating with researchers at Carleton University, Canada, working on the developmental origins of health and disease, and in immunology and infectious diseases, who will give input into immune and microbiome analyses, which could provide important new data on the reasons for the changes seen in affected children. In addition, UP researchers have partnered with the Centre for Human Metabolomics
Siyakhula study, Kalafong Hospital
Communicable Diseases
at North-West University in South Africa where the metabolomics testing will be performed. To date, 120 mothers have been recruited and preliminary results are expected by the end of 2019.
The clinical component of the Siyakhula study is led
by Professor Ute Feucht, a paediatrician at UP and
the Research Centre for Maternal, Foetal, Newborn
and Child Health Care Strategies. She obtained her
PhD in Paediatrics studying the implementation of
the Paediatric HIV programme in South Africa. The laboratory lead of the Siyakhula study is Professor Theresa Rossouw, who is a clinical researcher with a double PhD – in Philosophy and Medical Immunology. She has been treating patients with HIV for more than a decade and also has a keen interest in biomedical and research ethics.
Theresa Rossouw and Ute Feucht
DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
PEOPLE AND CONTEXTS
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
PLANET AND SUSTAINABILITY
Awards
Lead Researchers
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