Dr Kathleen Sim

Dr Sim’s fascination with the trillions of microbes that inhabit us combined with her paediatric background led her to join the Paediatric Microbiome Research Group. She is intrigued by the condition which primarily affects premature infants – necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). This disease has a high mortality rate and can leave survivors with devastating long-term effects. Unfortunately, its aetiology is ill defined, and as result, treatment is largely supportive. She was awarded an NIHR doctoral research fellowship to undertake a study which aimed to characterise the developing faecal microbiota of preterm infants and its relation to NEC. The research discovered two microbial signatures that anticipated the development of NEC and we currently exploring this in greater detail with metagenomic analysis.