Microbiome-directed Interventions to Improve Pregnancy and Infant Outcomes in the Global South

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation microbiome portfolio includes discovery and translational work to understand the microbiome and develop microbiome-directed therapies to be used during pregnancy, lactation and infancy. Our grants on microbiome-directed intervention complement our investments in maternal and infant/child nutrition, including recent work understanding micronutrients and energy requirements in women of reproductive age. Our latest strategy, targeting maternal microbial interventions represents a shift to focus on our growth and resilience principles, to focus on prevention to help restore the microbiota of mothers to improve nutrient absorption, decrease chronic inflammation and improve maternal-fetal health in our focus geographies. Ultimately, maternal microbiome interventions may help improve infant health. Our investments focus on developing novel products for our target populations, by building robust in-country partnerships and facilitating unique partnerships across sectors. Our team is willing to invest in higher-risk ideas to capture the cultural, geographical and biological characteristics of our target geographies to accelerate microbiome-directed product development in the MNCH space.