Fully funded PhD Studentship: Investigating essential fatty acid intakes and requirements in the perinatal period; pregnant women, preterm and term infants

Recent advances in neonatal care have led to improved survival rates for preterm infants. However, this has led to greater challenges in providing these survivors with adequate nutrition. The brain is highly enriched in the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), particularly the omega-6 PUFA, arachidonic acid (AA) and the omega-3 PUFA, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Both are essential for optimum brain development and foetal demand for AA and DHA is high, especially in the last trimester, which represents the period of maximal brain growth.
Premature infants are particularly vulnerable to DHA and AA deficiency, due to their low adipose tissue mass and immaturity of development at birth, particularly their gastrointestinal system, and health problems often increase the risk of extra uternine malnutrition. Fat intake for the extremely preterm infant comes from diverse sources, which includes maternal expressed breast milk, bank human milk (from pooled sources), formula milk, and parenteral nutrition. Importantly, the fatty acid composition of breast milk changes according to postnatal age, gestation and maternal diet, and breast milk from mothers of term babies may not be optimal for preterm infants. Due to this diversity preterm infant’s intake of DHA and AA may fall well below the accretion rate of these fatty acids in utero, potentially leading to impaired or delayed neurological development.
We have recently completed a pilot study quantifying the intake of extremely premature infants, and noted that intakes of DHA and AA were significantly lower than in utero accretion rates. This is consistent with studies in other countries reporting low DHA intakes of preterm infants, which lead to early and severe DHA deficits.
Current levels of preterm infant DHA and AA intake have not been established in the UK, and therefore this project seeks to quantify the levels of omega-3 and omega-6 PUFAs given to preterm infants from all sources and identify strategies for optimising intake and clinical outcomes.
Training Opportunities
This PhD studentship provides a unique opportunity for a student to develop a range of skills and competencies required to embark on a research career. In addition to training at Bournemouth University by the supervisory team and through attendance at postgraduate training course, the successful candidate would gain clinical experience working in other institutions working with the supervisors’ collaborative partners in the NHS. The incumbent would have access to appropriate clinical teams and education sessions to improve their understanding of clinical correlates of the biochemical research work.
The student will receive tuition in performing up-to-date analytical techniques by an experienced multidisciplinary team with expertise in the field. The supervisory team will contribute to facilitating the student through the process of communicating their scientific results at conferences, in papers as well as a PhD dissertation.
Eligibility Criteria
All candidates must satisfy the University’s minimum doctoral entry criteria for studentships of an honours degree at Upper Second Class (2:1) and/or an appropriate Masters degree. An IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5 minimum (or equivalent) is essential for candidates for whom English is not their first language.
Additional Eligibility
Due to the nature of the project, applicants with diverse prior experience e.g biomedical sciences


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Investigating essential fatty acid intakes and requirements in the perinatal period; pregnant women, preterm and term infants