I am a Next Generation Fellow at the Centre for Trophoblast Research (CTR), University of Cambridge (https://www.trophoblast.cam.ac.uk/staff/dr-priscilla-day-walsh), working in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynaecology in the group of Professor Steve Charnock-Jones and a Visiting Scientist in the Kroon group here at the Quadram Institute.

My work aims to understand the impact of the maternal gut microbiota derived components on developmental physiology, particularly placental development and function in relation to pregnancy outcomes.

In collaboration with Dr Paul Kroon, we also aim to understand the mechanisms through which food bioactive compounds and the gut microbiota interact to protect against cardio-metabolic diseases

Key Publications

Day P, Burrows L, Richards D, Fountain SJ: Inhibitors of diacylglycerol metabolism suppress CCR2 receptor signalling in human monocytes. Br J Pharmacol 2019. doi: 10.1111/bph.14695

Day PEL, Chambers KF, Winterbone MS, Garcia-Blanco T, Vauzour D, Kroon PA: Validation of control genes and a standardised protocol for quantifying gene expression in the livers of C57BL/6 and ApoE-/- mice. Sci Rep 2018, 8(1):8081. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26431-3

Muir, E., M. Raza, C. Ellis, E. Burnside, F. Love, S. Heller, M. Elliot, E. Daniell, D. Dasgupta, N. Alves, P. Day, J. Fawcett, and R. Keynes. Trafficking and processing of bacterial proteins by mammalian cells: Insights from chondroitinase ABC. PLOS ONE 12, e0186759, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0186759 (2017).

Day PE, Ntani G, Crozier SR , Mahon PA, Inskip H, Cooper C, Harvey NC, Godfrey KM, Hanson MA, Lewis RM , Cleal JK. Maternal Factors Are Associated with the Expression of Placental Genes Involved in Amino Acid Metabolism and Transport. PLOS ONE 10.1371/journal.pone.0143653, 2015.

Cleal JK, Day PE*, Crosier SR, Hanson MA, Harvey NCH, Robinson SM, Cooper C, Godfrey KM, and Lewis, RM, SWS team.Placental amino acid transport may be regulated by maternal vitamin D and vitamin D-binding protein: results from the Southampton Women’s Survey (*equal contribution as first author).