Global Child Health Research

Professor Andrew Prendergast’s group has a focus on the interaction between infection, immunity and malnutrition, particularly in the context of HIV infection. They are an interdisciplinary group of scientists and clinicians, joined in a commitment to improve global child health.

Research Background

• Undernutrition contributes to 45% of child deaths in developing countries, yet we do not fully understand the pathophysiology of malnutrition, or the best interventions for prevention and treatment.
• Stunting is the most prevalent form of undernutrition, affecting 165 million children under 5 years of age globally, and there are ambitious targets to reduce prevalence by 40% between 2010 and 2025. However, due to population growth, the absolute number of stunted children in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to increase and we lack understanding of the most tractable pathways to target for prevention.
• Severe acute malnutrition (wasting) affects an estimated 52 million children under 5 years of age and has particularly high mortality in the context of HIV infection. The pathophysiology of severe acute malnutrition in HIV-infected children is not well understood but urgent new interventions are needed to reduce the 30% mortality associated with this condition.

Professor Prendergast divides his time between London, where he is based at the Blizard Institute, and Zimbabwe, where he is director of Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research. The Prendergast group enjoy working closely with colleagues and collaborators in sub-Saharan Africa, including Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya. At any given time, the team are working across several ambitious studies, with funders including NIHR, MRC, Wellcome, Barts Charity and more.