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Photo © The University of Western Australia
The world’s first chair in Human Lactology (now known as Immunology and Breastfeeding) was established at The University of Western Australia (UWA) with an endowment from FLRF in 2015.
That Chair has since grown into a full research center: the Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Centre for Immunology and Breastfeeding (LRF CIBF), directed by Professor Valérie Verhasselt. The Centre is anchored in the UWA School of Medicine and located at the Telethon Kids Institute.
Researchers at the LRF CIBF are building a holistic understanding of early-life immune development to enable age-tailored care and promote healthy development. They aim to empower parents and healthcare professionals to make informed, evidence-based decisions about optimal newborn and infant care, with a strong focus on human milk. To achieve this, they work to:
A particular focus of the Centre is its pioneering research on how colostrum, the first milk produced after birth, lays the foundations of immune health. They investigate whether exclusive colostrum feeding helps set infants on a resilient lifelong trajectory, studying its role in developing the immune system and preventing allergy, growth failure, infection, and neurodevelopmental challenges across diverse populations. This work supports the development of strategies to ensure every newborn receives the immunological benefits of colostrum, especially in vulnerable or high-risk settings.
Building on this foundation, they also study how human milk continues to educate and guide the infant immune system throughout early life. By uncovering how maternal environment influence milk composition, and how this, in turn, shapes infant immune development, they we aim to generate personalised guidance to improve disease prevention from birth onward and to inform the design of infant-tailored therapeutics such as next-generation vaccines.
The LRF CIBF team is also focused on questions especially relevant for children in low-resource settings, such as identifying what is needed to make breastmilk more likely to prevent conditions like malaria, growth failure and helminth infection.
The Centre’s research findings have the potential to generate significant global impact by building an evidence base on the role of breastmilk as a preventative measure against allergies, infectious diseases and metabolic disorders - ultimately benefiting the long-term health of women and children worldwide.
This work contributes directly to SDGs 2, 3 and 4.
FLRF donated AUD 11.5 million to establish the LRF CIBF – read the press release.
Hartnell L, Agudelo-Romero P, Montgomery ST, Ben-Othman R, Verhasselt V, Stick SM, et al. What goes up must come down: dynamics of type 1 interferon signaling across the lifespan. Front Immunol [Internet]. 2025;16(1654604):1654604. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2025.1654604
Bhasin M, Cooper M, Macchiaverni P, Joys RS, O’Sullivan TA, Keelan JA, et al. Colostrum as a protective factor against peanut allergy: Evidence from a birth cohort. Allergy [Internet]. 2025;(all.70043). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/all.70043
Verhasselt V, Tellier J, Carsetti R, Tepekule B. Antibodies in breast milk: Pro-bodies designed for healthy newborn development. Immunol Rev [Internet]. 2024;328(1):192–204. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imr.13411
Divakara N, Dempsey Z, Saraswati C, Garssen J, Silva D, Keelan JA, et al. Effect of maternal prebiotic supplementation on human milk immunological composition: Insights from the SYMBA study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol [Internet]. 2024;35(9):e14226. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pai.14226
Verhasselt V. A newborn’s perspective on immune responses to food. Immunol Rev [Internet]. 2024;326(1):117–29. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imr.13376
van den Elsen LJW, Rekima A, Lynn MA, Isnard C, Machado S, Divakara N, et al. Diet at birth is critical for healthy growth, independent of effects on the gut microbiota. Microbiome. 2024;12(1):139. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-024-01852-7
Macchiaverni P, Lloyd M, Masters L, Divakara N, Panta K, Imrie A, et al. Specific IgA, but not IgG, in human milk from COVID-19-infected mothers neutralizes SARS-CoV-2. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2024;43(6):532–5. DOI: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004291
Rekima A, van den Elsen L, Isnard C, Smyth DJ, Lynn MA, Yee T, et al. Colostrum is required for the postnatal ontogeny of small intestine innate lymphoid type 2 cells and successful anti-helminth defences. Allergy. 2024;79(8):2247–51. DOI: 10.1111/all.16054
Parkin K, Palmer DJ, Verhasselt V, Amenyogbe N, Cooper MN, Christophersen CT, et al. Metagenomic characterisation of the gut microbiome and effect of complementary feeding on Bifidobacterium spp. In Australian infants. Microorganisms . 2024;12(1). DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12010228
Macchiaverni P, Divakara N, Verhasselt V. Maternal diet during breastfeeding: Could it influence food allergy risk in children? In: Encyclopedia of Food Allergy. Elsevier; 2024. p. 309–18.
van den Elsen L, Kollmann T, Verhasselt V. Microbial antigen in human milk: a natural vaccine?. Mucosal Immunology. 2022;27:1–2. DOI: 10.1038/s41385-022-00561-4
Macchiaverni P, Gehring U, Rekima A, Wijga A, Verhasselt V. House Dust Mite Exposure through Human Milk and Dust: What Matters for Child Allergy Risk?. Nutrients. 2022;14(10):2095. DOI: 10.3390/nu14102095
Gamirova A, Berbenyuk A, Levina D, Peshko D, Simpson MR, Azad MB, et al. Food Proteins in Human Breast Milk and Probability of IgE-Mediated Allergic Reaction in Children During Breastfeeding: A Systematic Review. The journal of allergy and clinical immunology In practice. 2022;10(5):1312-24 e8.
Vandenplas Y, Meyer R, Chouraqui JP, Dupont C, Fiocchi A, Salvatore S, et al. The role of milk feeds and other dietary supplementary interventions in preventing allergic disease in infants: Fact or fiction? Clin Nutr. 2021;40(2):358-71.
van den Elsen LWJ, Verhasselt V. Human Milk Drives the Intimate Interplay Between Gut Immunity and Adipose Tissue for Healthy Growth. Frontiers in immunology. 2021;12:645415.
Shamji MH, Valenta R, Jardetzky T, Verhasselt V, Durham SR, Wurtzen PA, et al. The role of allergen-specific IgE, IgG and IgA in allergic disease. Allergy. 2021.
Rodriguez JM, Fernandez L, Verhasselt V. The GutBreast Axis: Programming Health for Life. Nutrients. 2021;13(2).
Parkin K, Christophersen CT, Verhasselt V, Cooper MN, Martino D. Risk Factors for Gut Dysbiosis in Early Life. Microorganisms. 2021;9(10).
Macchiaverni P, Rekima A, van den Elsen L, Renz H, Verhasselt V. Allergen shedding in human milk: Could it be key for immune system education and allergy prevention? The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology. 2021;148(3):679-88.
Halken S, Muraro A, de Silva D, Khaleva E, Angier E, Arasi S, et al. EAACI guideline: Preventing the development of food allergy in infants and young children (2020 update). Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2021.
Samuel TM, Zhou Q, Giuffrida F, Munblit D, Verhasselt V, Thakkar SK. Nutritional and non-nutritional composition of human milk is modulated by maternal, infant, and methodological factors. Front Nutr. 2020;7:576133. DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2020.576133
Verhasselt V, Genuneit J, Metcalfe JR, Tulic MK, Rekima A, Palmer DJ, et al. Ovalbumin in breastmilk is associated with a decreased risk of IgE-mediated egg allergy in children. Allergy. 2020;75(6):1463-6.
van den Elsen LWJ, Verhasselt V, Egwang T. Malaria Antigen Shedding in the Breast Milk of Mothers From a Region With Endemic Malaria. JAMA Pediatr. 2020.
Rekima A, Bonnart C, Macchiaverni P, Metcalfe J, Tulic MK, Halloin N, et al. A role for early oral exposure to house dust mite allergens through breast milk in IgE-mediated food allergy susceptibility. The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology. 2020.
Macchiaverni P, Gehring U, Rekima A, Wijga AH, Verhasselt V. House Dust Mites: Does a Clean Mattress Mean Der p 1-free Breastmilk? Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2020.
de Silva D, Halken S, Singh C, Antonella M, Angier E, Arasi S, et al. Preventing food allergy in infancy and childhood: systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2020.
Adel-Patient K, Bernard H, Fenaille F, Hazebrouck S, Junot C, Verhasselt V. Prevention of Allergy to a Major Cow's Milk Allergen by Breastfeeding in Mice Depends on Maternal Immune Status and Oral Exposure During Lactation. Frontiers in immunology. 2020;11:1545.
van den Elsen LWJ, Garssen J, Burcelin R, Verhasselt V. Shaping the Gut Microbiota by Breastfeeding: The Gateway to Allergy Prevention? Front Pediatr. 2019;7:47.
Blyuss O, Cheung KY, Chen J, Parr C, Petrou L, Komarova A, et al. Statistical Approaches in the Studies Assessing Associations between Human Milk Immune Composition and Allergic Diseases: A Scoping Review. Nutrients. 2019;11(10).
Renz H, Adkins BD, Bartfeld S, Blumberg RS, Farber DL, Garssen J, et al. The neonatal window of opportunity-early priming for life. The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology. 2018;141(4):1212-4.
Marchant A, Sadarangani M, Garand M, Dauby N, Verhasselt V, Pereira L, et al. Maternal immunisation: collaborating with mother nature. The Lancet Infectious diseases. 2017.
Baiz N, Macchiaverni P, Tulic MK, Rekima A, Annesi-Maesano I, Verhasselt V, et al. Early oral exposure to house dust mite allergen through breast milk: A potential risk factor for allergic sensitization and respiratory allergies in children. The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology. 2017;139(1):369-72 e10.
Turfkruyer M, Verhasselt V. Response to "Disparity between vitamin A-induced Th1-dependent oral tolerance in newborn mice and vitamin A-induced atopic sensitization in Guinean girls". Mucosal immunology. 2016.
Turfkruyer M, Rekima A, Macchiaverni P, Le Bourhis L, Muncan V, van den Brink GR, et al. Oral tolerance is inefficient in neonatal mice due to a physiological vitamin A deficiency. Mucosal immunology. 2016;9(2):479-91.
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