WHERE WERE YOU BEFORE RECEIVING THIS AWARD?
Prior to receiving this award, I had just returned to UCD after 8 years at the University of Auckland. In addition to the disruption caused by an international move and setting up a lab during the pandemic, my career had been significantly disrupted by two periods of maternity leave while in New Zealand. Overall, this reduced my capacity to generate data making it difficult to maintain my previously excellent career trajectory in terms of grant success and high-quality research outcomes.
YOUR RESEARCH IN LAY TERMS
There is significant evidence that an unhealthy diet greatly increases the risk of complications during pregnancy and predisposes offspring to obesity. While fat intake is typically associated with the onset of obesity and ill health, there is increasing evidence linking sugar to the global rise in obesity rates. This has resulted in an increase in the consumption of artificial sweeteners. However, the impact of these compounds on paternal fertility, and long-term health outcomes during pregnancy in his partner and child have not been well studied.
The overall objective of this project is to examine whether sweeteners with calories (fructose) or without calories (Acesulfame-k and stevia extract) in isolation or in combination with a high fat diet, contribute to fertility, reproduction and obesity in fathers and their offspring in a mouse model. This will involve examining sperm quality to see if these diets can impact pregnancy and later offspring health outcomes.
HOW HAS ISSF HELPED YOUR RESEARCH CAREER?
While I have yet to complete this award, it has already had a hugely positive impact on my career. Having the support of this award allowed me to initiate a new collaborative link with Prof. Sabine Koelle (School of Medicine) and in doing so establish a new research theme which complements by previous research, as part of this we will set up a novel live imaging assay to visualise the interaction between sperm and the uterine tract in real-time which provides valuable new insight into the mechanism which govern early life programming.
TANGIBLE OUTPUTS AS A RESULT OF RECEIVING THE AWARD
The date generated as part of this project has been presented at:
Conferences
- Nutrition Society Summer Meeting 2021 (online due to COVID) – Oral presentation by Michelle Kearns
- ECOICO meeting 2020 (online due to COVID) – Invited talk which included data generated as part of this project (data from the STEPS cohort)
- Conway Lecture and Seminar Series – Invited talk which included data generated as part of this project (data from systematic review project and STEPS cohort)
Collaborations
- Professor Hanna Langstrom (University of Turku, Finland)
Outreach
- Midlands Science - Public talk and workshop (online) discussing the dangers of sugars and artificial sweeteners in relation to health
WHAT DID THE AWARD MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY?
This award has given me the opportunity to re-start experiments and establish new techniques which will complement and expand my existing research focus. Mentorship from Prof Koelle has been instrumental in developing new links with researchers at the School of Medicine in UCD and promoting a new stream of interdisciplinary research in the field of reproductive science.
While COVID has reduced my capacity to target some areas of career development such as attendance at key conferences, several conference trips to showcase this research are planned for the coming year which will enhance my visibility as a research in the field of reproductive science as well as developing new collaboratory links with international researchers in the area which will no doubt bolster the impact of upcoming grant applications. Despite COVID my team has managed to develop new collaborations (such as that with Prof Hanna Lagstrom, University of Turku), carry out outreach activities (Midlands Science) and give talks related to the data already generated in this proposal in a local and international context.