Dr Priscilla Day-Walsh
College Research Associate
Dr Priscilla Day-Walsh is a Next Generation Fellow at the Centre for Trophoblast Research working in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. Dr Day-Walsh’s key research interests are in understanding how the human gut microbiome can be utilised as a novel tool for predicting, preventing and treating pregnancy complications and their associated morbidities and mortalities. In particular Dr Day-Walsh’s research aims to provide a mechanistic understanding of how the maternal gut microbiota affect maternal-placental-fetal physiology and the impact this has on pregnancy outcomes and health across the life-span.
Dr Day-Walsh believes that understanding the microbiome is key to overcoming some of global medical challenges such as antibiotic resistance, communicable and non-communicable diseases. To this end she has been instrumental in developing methodological approaches for investigating and analysing microbial metabolites in biological samples.
Her PhD at the University of Southampton which was funded by The Gerald Kerkut Charitable Trust (https://www.kerkut-trust.org.uk/) provided mechanisms of nutrient transport and metabolism across the human placenta and the impact of maternal factors such as body composition and smoking on placental nutrient transport and metabolism.
Dr Day-Walsh is a Visiting Research Scientist at the Quadram Institute where she also co-founded the Quadram Institute’s Postdoctoral Society (QIPs) and the Norwich Research Park African Initiative. Dr Day-Walsh is also a member of the Cambridge Reproduction Society, Physiological Society, Cambridge Metabolic Networking and the European Atherosclerosis Society.
- Key publications
- The use of an in-vitro batch fermentation (human colon) model for investigating mechanisms of TMA production from choline, L-carnitine and related precursors by the human gut microbiota. DOI: 10.1007/s00394-021-02572-6 .
- Development and Validation of a LC-MS/MS Technique for the Analysis of Short Chain Fatty Acids in Tissues and Biological Fluids without Derivatisation Using Isotope Labelled Internal Standards. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26216444.
- Microbiomes in physiology: insights into 21st-century global medical challenges. https://doi.org/10.1113/EP090226.
- Partitioning of glutamine synthesised by the isolated perfused human placenta between the maternal and fetal circulations. DOI: 10.1016/j.placenta.2013.10.003.
- Placental amino acid transport may be regulated by maternal vitamin D and vitamin D-binding protein: results from the Southampton Women’s Survey. DOI: 10.1017/S0007114515001178.
- Transcriptional and Post-Translational Regulation of Junctional Adhesion Molecule-B (JAM-B) in Leukocytes under Inflammatory Stimuli. DOI: 10.3390/ijms23158646.
- Inhibitors of diacylglycerol metabolism suppress CCR2 receptor signalling in human monocytes. DOI: 10.1111/bph.14695.
