Project Reference: TRG27-PDN-AS1

Project title: Heat Stress in Pregnancy: Mechanisms Linking Climate Change to Maternal Mental Health and Offspring Brain Development 

Project outline

Temperatures are rising globally as a result of climate change, while the prevalence of neurocognitive and mental health disorders continues to increase. Pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable to heat exposure, yet the mechanisms linking gestational heat stress to maternal mental health and offspring neurodevelopment remain poorly understood.

This project will investigate how heat exposure during pregnancy affects maternal and offspring mental health, and identify the biological pathways underlying these effects. Using mouse models that simulate clinically relevant heat exposure at different stages of pregnancy, the student will assess pregnancy outcomes and, in dams allowed to deliver, evaluate maternal and offspring behaviour using established tests of depression-, anxiety- and stress-related traits.

To determine the mechanisms involved, maternal and offspring brain and blood samples will be analysed for markers of stress, inflammation and neurotransmitter signalling. These studies will be complemented by analyses of brain development and placental structure and function, recognising the placenta as the critical interface between mother and fetus that influences lifelong health.

The project will provide training in a broad range of in vivo and in vitro techniques, including physiological monitoring of body temperature, behavioural testing, multiplex immunoassays, ELISAs, RNA sequencing, in situ hybridisation, histology, immunofluorescence, stereology, Western blotting, qPCR and bioinformatics. Together, these approaches will provide integrated insights from whole-animal physiology to molecular mechanisms.

As global temperatures and the frequency of extreme heat events continue to rise, understanding how gestational heat exposure affects maternal mental health and offspring brain development is an urgent public health priority. The findings will help inform strategies to protect women and future generations from the health impacts of climate change

Principal Supervisor

Professor Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri

Email address: ans48@cam.ac.uk

Department / Partner Institute: Physiology, Development and Neuroscience (PDN)

Website: https://www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/directory/amanda-sferruzzi-perri

BBSRC strategic theme

Bioscience for an integrated understanding of health