Dr. Lisa Stinson

School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia.

Dr. Lisa Stinson is a reproductive biologist and molecular microbiologist at The University of Western Australia. Her research interests include the early life microbiome and the developmental origins of health and disease. She completed her PhD in May 2019, with a thesis titled “The not-so-sterile womb: New data to challenge an old dogma”. Throughout her PhD, she has published extensively, engaged in science communication and public outreach, and presented her work at numerous conferences. Lisa’s research has received numerous awards and significant media attention. She currently works in the Hartmann Human Lactation Research Group exploring the human milk microbiome. Lisa hopes to develop and apply microbial-based interventions to optimise maternal and infant health and to prevent the development of chronic immune-mediated diseases.

Abstract: Bugs, breasts, babes, and beyond

Though it was once considered sterile, we now understand that human milk contains a multitude of micro-organisms, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi. These act to seed the infant microbiome, which in turn influences infant immune and metabolic development and life-long health. This talk will take you on a flash tour of the human milk microbiome, introducing you to the main microbes present, their origins, and their roles. Given the importance of the human milk microbiota, donor milk-fed and formula-fed infants may be negatively impacted by a lack of exposure to maternal microbes. Could we intervene to modulate these products and improve infant health? Can we harness what we know about the human milk microbiome to prevent and treat mastitis? And finally, given that the human milk microbiome varies with maternal health and lifestyle factors, could we – and should we – modulate the human milk microbiome using interventions such as diet and pre/probiotics?