Ellen W. Demerath, PhD
Professor, Epidemiology and Community Health
Contact information
University of Minnesota
Biography
Ellen Demerath received her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and is Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health. Her research is at the interface of nutrition, human biology, and child development, and seeks to understand how maternal and early-life nutritional factors alter health trajectories across the life course. Her current studies focus on maternal nutrition and gestational diabetes in shaping lactation and human milk composition, and identifying nutritional indicators of preterm infant growth that predict neurodevelopmental outcomes. Dr. Demerath has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on nutrition, obesity, breastfeeding, and child growth and development, and her research has been continuously funded by NIH since 2005. She has served on federal expert panels on nutrition during pregnancy, breastfeeding and human milk, and infant adiposity sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences.
Published articles
Ellen W. Demerath - PubMed articles
Gestational diabetes, human milk oligosaccharide concentrations, and their links to infant weight gain and the gut microbiome in a United States observational cohort
CONCLUSIONS: Mothers with a GDM diagnosis had higher milk concentrations of LNFP III and 6'SL, and 6'SL was in turn associated with increased infant growth rate, but neither HMO was associated with differential infant gut microbial abundances. The results suggest that the link between 6'SL and faster infant growth, if causal, occurs via mechanisms independent of the infant gut microbiome. This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03301753.
Systematic Preparation of Electronic Health Record Flowsheet Data to Develop Measures of Breastfeeding Intensity and Support During the Postpartum Hospital Stay
Electronic health records (EHR) provide high-volume data about postpartum breastfeeding care. Despite the importance of exclusive breastfeeding as a quality indicator, there is no standardized method for analyzing this data. Following a systematic approach, we applied an EHR preparation framework to flowsheet documentation to evaluate data quality and create indicators of breastfeeding support (number of documented support interactions/expected number of interactions = support ratio) and...
Assembly of the infant gut microbiome and resistome are linked to bacterial strains in mother's milk
The establishment of the gut microbiome in early life is critical for healthy infant development. Although human milk is recommended as sole nutrition for the infant, little is known about how variation in the milk microbiome shapes the microbial communities in the infant gut. Here, we quantified the similarity between the maternal milk and the infant gut microbiomes using 507 metagenomic samples collected from 195 mother-infant pairs at one, three, and six months postpartum. Microbial taxonomic...
Maternal Physical Activity and Its Relationship to the Human Milk Metabolome and Infant Body Composition
CONCLUSION: Maternal exercise was associated with differences in the breast milk metabolome. Metabolites that were associated both with acute exercise and habitual activity correlated with infant adiposity measures.
Gestational Diabetes, the Human Milk Metabolome, and Infant Growth and Adiposity
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this observational cohort study, GD was associated with altered concentrations of several human milk metabolites. The associations between these metabolites and infant growth suggest that milk compositional differences in mothers with GD may beneficially moderate the growth and body composition of their infants.
The proportion of weight gain due to change in fat mass in infants with vs without rapid growth
CONCLUSIONS: Pediatricians should monitor infant growth with the understanding that, while crossing upward through the weight centiles generally is accompanied by greater adiposity gains (not just higher BMI), upward crossing through the length centiles is not.
Maternal oral probiotic use is associated with decreased breastmilk inflammatory markers, infant fecal microbiome variation, and altered recognition memory responses in infants-a pilot observational study
INTRODUCTION: Early life gut microbiomes are important for brain and immune system development in animal models. Probiotic use has been proposed as a strategy to promote health via modulation of microbiomes. In this observational study, we explore if early life exposure to probiotics via the mother during pregnancy and lactation, is associated with decreased inflammation in breastmilk, maternal and infant microbiome variation, and altered infant neurodevelopmental features.
Human milk variation is shaped by maternal genetics and impacts the infant gut microbiome
Human milk is a complex mix of nutritional and bioactive components that provide complete nourishment for the infant. However, we lack a systematic knowledge of the factors shaping milk composition and how milk variation influences infant health. Here, we characterize relationships between maternal genetics, milk gene expression, milk composition, and the infant fecal microbiome in up to 310 exclusively breastfeeding mother-infant pairs. We identified 482 genetic loci associated with milk gene...
Human cytomegalovirus in breast milk is associated with milk composition and the infant gut microbiome and growth
Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a highly prevalent herpesvirus that is often transmitted to the neonate via breast milk. Postnatal CMV transmission can have negative health consequences for preterm and immunocompromised infants, but any effects on healthy term infants are thought to be benign. Furthermore, the impact of CMV on the composition of the hundreds of bioactive factors in human milk has not been tested. Here, we utilize a cohort of exclusively breastfeeding full-term mother-infant pairs...
Publisher Correction: Understanding the genetic complexity of puberty timing across the allele frequency spectrum
No abstract
Understanding the genetic complexity of puberty timing across the allele frequency spectrum
Pubertal timing varies considerably and is associated with later health outcomes. We performed multi-ancestry genetic analyses on ~800,000 women, identifying 1,080 signals for age at menarche. Collectively, these explained 11% of trait variance in an independent sample. Women at the top and bottom 1% of polygenic risk exhibited ~11 and ~14-fold higher risks of delayed and precocious puberty, respectively. We identified several genes harboring rare loss-of-function variants in ~200,000 women,...
Characterisation and validation of lactation information from structured electronic health records for use in pharmacoepidemiological studies
CONCLUSIONS: Breastfeeding information in structured EHR fields have the potential to accurately classify lactation status. The validity of these data should be assessed in populations with a lower breastfeeding prevalence.
Assembly, stability, and dynamics of the infant gut microbiome are linked to bacterial strains and functions in mother's milk
The establishment of the gut microbiome in early life is critical for healthy infant development. Although human milk is recommended as the sole source of nutrition for the human infant, little is known about how variation in milk composition, and especially the milk microbiome, shapes the microbial communities in the infant gut. Here, we quantified the similarity between the maternal milk and the infant gut microbiome using 507 metagenomic samples collected from 195 mother-infant pairs at one,...
Body composition after implementation of an enhanced parenteral nutrition protocol in the neonatal intensive care unit: a randomised pilot trial
CONCLUSION: In this pilot trial, enhanced parenteral nutrition in the first week of life was not associated with significant differences in infant growth or body composition during hospitalisation.
Understanding the genetic complexity of puberty timing across the allele frequency spectrum
Pubertal timing varies considerably and has been associated with a range of health outcomes in later life. To elucidate the underlying biological mechanisms, we performed multi-ancestry genetic analyses in ~800,000 women, identifying 1,080 independent signals associated with age at menarche. Collectively these loci explained 11% of the trait variance in an independent sample, with women at the top and bottom 1% of polygenic risk exhibiting a ~11 and ~14-fold higher risk of delayed and precocious...
Human Cytomegalovirus in breast milk is associated with milk composition, the infant gut microbiome, and infant growth
Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a highly prevalent herpesvirus that is often transmitted to the neonate via breast milk. Postnatal CMV transmission can have negative health consequences for preterm and immunocompromised infants, but any effects on healthy term infants are thought to be benign. Furthermore, the impact of CMV on the composition of the hundreds of bioactive factors in human milk has not been tested. Here, we utilize a cohort of exclusively breastfeeding full term mother-infant pairs...
Parental factors that impact the ecology of human mammary development, milk secretion, and milk composition-a report from "Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN)" Working Group 1
The goal of Working Group 1 in the Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN) Project was to outline factors influencing biological processes governing human milk secretion and to evaluate our current knowledge of these processes. Many factors regulate mammary gland development in utero, during puberty, in pregnancy, through secretory activation, and at weaning. These factors include breast anatomy, breast vasculature, diet, and the lactating parent's hormonal milieu including...
Enhanced Parenteral Nutrition Is Feasible and Safe in Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Infants: A Randomized Trial
CONCLUSION: Utilization of an enhanced nutrition protocol during the first week of life resulted in increased caloric intake and was feasible with no evidence of harm. Follow-up of this cohort is needed to determine if enhanced PN will result in improved growth and neurodevelopment.
Human milk variation is shaped by maternal genetics and impacts the infant gut microbiome
Human milk is a complex mix of nutritional and bioactive components that provide complete nutrition for the infant. However, we lack a systematic knowledge of the factors shaping milk composition and how milk variation influences infant health. Here, we used multi-omic profiling to characterize interactions between maternal genetics, milk gene expression, milk composition, and the infant fecal microbiome in 242 exclusively breastfeeding mother-infant pairs. We identified 487 genetic loci...
Revisiting One-Carbon Metabolites in Human Breast Milk: Focus on S-Adenosylmethionine
Breastfeeding is the gold standard for early nutrition. Metabolites from the one-carbon metabolism pool are crucial for infant development. The aim of this study is to compare the breast-milk one-carbon metabolic profile to other biofluids where these metabolites are present, including cord and adult blood plasma as well as cerebrospinal fluid. Breast milk (n = 142), cord blood plasma (n = 23), maternal plasma (n = 28), aging adult plasma (n = 91), cerebrospinal fluid (n = 92), and infant milk...