Born Strong Initiative

Every mother around the world shares the same simple wish – for their babies to be born healthy and strong, and to have the best possible start in life. Sadly, all too often this isn’t the case, and parents are left without answers, wondering what it was they could have done differently.

But what if we had more influence over this trajectory than we previously thought possible?

The bond between a mother and her baby has fascinated scientists for years, and the more we learn about this unique relationship, the more powerful its potential becomes. Our science has shown an indelible link between a mother’s immune system and the immune resilience of her baby. We know by empowering the mother’s immune system before and during pregnancy, we can directly affect her baby’s immune resilience and alter the course of that baby’s health for life.

If we want to make a difference to human life, we need to start before birth.

The BORN STRONG Initiative is an ambitious series of research projects, focused on finding effective ways to strengthen a mother’s immune system in order to positively impact her baby’s immune resilience.

Until today, a global research project of this scale and significance was unfathomable, but with the recent advances in systems biology and artificial intelligence which are revolutionising our understanding of maternal-fetal-newborn immunity, we can do just this. Through the Human Immunome Project’s network, the BORN STRONG Initiative team are positioned to harness the potential found in the relationship between a mother and her baby to optimize immune resilience for both and change the health trajectory for millions of little unborn lives here and around the world.

We want to make sure healthy happens before birth, so all children everywhere are born strong.

The Telethon Kids Institute (TKI) is one of Australia’s leading research institutes dedicated to kids’ health and well-being, and a pioneer in advanced systems biology studies. Telethon Kids brings together laboratory, clinical and population-based research to discover ways to prevent, treat and cure the most common and devastating diseases and issues affecting children and young people in Australia and throughout the world. The TKI undertakes research in many areas including cancer, diabetes, respiratory health, infectious diseases, youth health, mental health and disability.