A microbiological researcher from The University of Western Australia has received funding from the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation to improve outcomes for preterm babies.

Associate Professor Matt Payne, Principal Research Fellow with UWA’s Medical School, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, is the recipient of a Stan Perron Charitable Foundation’s 2024 Health Researcher Grant.

Associate Professor Payne studies specific bacterial DNA signatures present in the vagina and how they can impact pregnancy.

The funding will support Associate Professor Payne to continue with two current major research focuses.

He will document the vaginal microbiome in First Nations women for development of diagnostic tests to predict preterm birth.

“Preterm birth remains the leading cause of death and disability in children less than five years of age worldwide,” Associate Professor Payne said.

“It impacts approximately eight per cent of Australian infants and is twice as prevalent in First Nations women.”

Associate Professor Payne will also use inflammatory marker profiling and untargeted protein analyses to help understand the mechanisms behind preterm births that result from microbes.

“This research focus has the potential to yield data that can be harnessed for the development of new point-of-care diagnostics for preterm birth prediction,” he said.

In the final two to three years of the fellowship, Associate Professor Payne will expand his research focus to investigate the role of the male partner genital microbiome in preterm birth and whether new treatment regimens should consider both the male and female for optimal pregnancy outcomes.

“I am incredibly grateful to the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation for their support of this work which expands on how certain combinations of vaginal microbes can predict preterm birth,” he said.

UWA Professor of Obstetrics, Professor John Newnham, said the support of the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation had been invaluable over many years.

“For three decades, the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation has been a passionate supporter of research to improve the health and wellbeing of Western Australian children,” Professor Newnham said.

“Preventing preterm birth using vaginal microbial biomarkers and new antimicrobial treatments has the potential to be a major advancement in obstetrics.”