The research team will receive approximately 500,000 euros over four years from the joint funding program zukunft.niedersachsen, established by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and the Volkswagen Foundation. Around 270,000 euros of the funding will support Dr. Natalia Torow, who leads the junior research group “Early Life Immunity” at HZI. The remaining funds will go to her project partner, Prof. Avi-Hai Hovav of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“Although maternal infections or inflammatory conditions are known to affect fetal development, we still do not fully understand to what extent these factors also shape the developing immune system and thereby influence disease susceptibility later in life,” says Natalia Torow.
To address this question, the researchers are studying how maternal periodontitis affects immune development in the offspring. Periodontitis is a common chronic inflammatory disease that has been linked to several serious systemic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, and pregnancy complications such as preterm birth. The researchers therefore focus particularly on mucosal tissues in the mouth and gut, which play a central role in immune defense. Initial analyses in animal models show that offspring born to mothers with periodontitis carry higher bacterial loads in the oral cavity and display altered immune responses as well as signs of early immune activation. Later in life, these offspring also show impaired immune function and respond differently to infections and vaccinations.
“We are very pleased about the funding for this project because it enables us to investigate, using state-of-the-art tools, how maternal inflammation influences the infant’s microbiome, immune cells, and tissue barriers,” Torow says. “We will also analyze how these changes affect the child’s risk of oral infections, inflammatory bowel disease, and insufficient vaccine responses.”
The project aims to generate knowledge that could inform new preventive strategies beginning already during pregnancy, with the goal of supporting healthy immune development and reducing the risk of inflammatory diseases later in life.
The funding is provided through the call “Lower Saxony–Israel Research Cooperation” within the research funding program zukunft.niedersachsen, jointly established by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) and the Volkswagen Foundation.
