The development of the human immune system in early life, including in utero, impacts the risks of several diseases later in life, particularly immune-mediated diseases such as allergies, asthma, and autoimmunity. Yet, the mechanisms of early life immune imprinting have been poorly understood in humans due to the difficulty in obtaining samples and the challenges of deriving the most important data from small sample volumes available.

INITIALISE is an EU funded project that aims to elucidate how exposures and genome impact gut microbiome, host immune system and metabolism, and how the interplay of these factors impact life-course health. INITIALISE aims to define the role of the maturation of the immune system as a mediator between exposures and life-course health.

The specific objectives of INITIALISE are: 1. to elucidate how exposures and genome impact gut microbiome, host immune system and metabolism, and how the interplay of these factors impact life-course health. 2. to define the role of the maturation of the immune system as a mediator between exposures and life-course health. Functional studies will be performed, to test specific mechanisms of environmental factors differing among children with different health outcomes and their imprinting on developing immune cells. 3. to perform a pilot clinical study, targeting the immune system, for personalised disease prevention. 4. to set up a collaborative data science platform for the studies of early-life factors linked with life-course health.