Funding to improve pregnancy outcomes for women and babies

New funding from the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation to one of Western Australia’s most promising microbiological researchers is set to vastly improve the outlook for babies potentially born too soon.

Principal Research Fellow with University of Western Australia’s Medical School, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Associate Professor Matt Payne, joined a select group of researchers that were last week named successful recipients of the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation’s 2024 Health Researchers Grants.

In recent years the importance of the human microbiome to human health has received widespread media attention. Although most focus has been on the gut microbiome, A/Prof. Payne has turned his attention to specific bacterial DNA signatures present in the vagina and how they can impact a pregnancy.

Initially, this funding will support A/Prof. Payne to continue with two current major research focuses.

He will document the vaginal microbiome in First Nations women for development of diagnostic tests to predict preterm birth. Preterm birth remains the leading cause of death and disability in children less than five years of age worldwide. It impacts approximately 8 per cent of Australian infants and is twice as prevalent in First Nations women.

A/Prof. Payne will also use inflammatory marker profiling and untargeted protein analyses to help understand the mechanisms behind preterm births that result from microbes.

“This research focus also has the potential to yield data that can be harnessed for the development of new point-of-care diagnostics for preterm birth prediction,” he said.

The final 2-3 years of the fellowship will allow A/Prof. Payne to greatly expand his research focus to investigate the role of the male partner genital microbiome in preterm birth and whether new treatment regimens should consider both the male and female for optimal pregnancy outcomes.

“I am incredibly grateful to the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation for their support of this work which expands on how certain combinations of vaginal microbes can predict preterm birth.”

UWA Professor of Obstetrics, Professor John Newnham, said the support of the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation had been invaluable over many years.

“For three decades, the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation has been a passionate supporter of research to improve the health and wellbeing of Western Australian children,” Professor Newnham said.

“Preventing preterm birth using vaginal microbial biomarkers and new antimicrobial treatments has the potential to be a major advancement in obstetrics.”

The 2024 Health Researchers Grants continues the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation’s long tradition of funding Western Australian research that aims to solve problems and deliver tangible outcomes that will benefit children, adolescents or young people. View the 2024 winners here.