Research profile: Dr Cathy Thornton

Dr Cathy Thornton Dr Cathy Thornton is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Life Science, part of the School of Medicine at Swansea University.

Her main area of research is studying how exposure to environmental factors in the womb affect the working of the immune system at birth and as the baby grows up.

Why is asthma so interesting as a research issue?

Asthma is the most common long-term childhood condition in the UK, and the number of children affected is increasing. This is likely to be related to how their genes interact with the environment.

During a baby’s development in the womb, the placenta provides chemicals required for the development of cells of the immune system. So the environment during pregnancy may have a key role in determining the development of asthma and related conditions such as allergies. It may also help determine why some children develop allergies to things such as dust mites or cats, which are common triggers of asthma.

Researching the development of the immune system in babies and children is challenging because of the ethical and practical issues of working with them, but it is also incredibly fascinating and immensely rewarding.

What do you most enjoy about your work?

I have always enjoyed studying the immune system and I love the process of formulating new questions based on what I, and others, have already found out and then investigating these in the laboratory.

Research involves using both the brain to come up with new ideas and interpret data and your hands to do the laboratory work. It is quite a thrill to discover new things and be the first person to have identified a new way of understanding a condition!

As asthma touches most people’s lives either directly or indirectly, I also enjoy being able to tell people about the research into asthma that is being done by us and others.

How does Asthma UK help your research?

Asthma UK is funding our study, which investigates the impact of maternal allergy and smoking on the placenta and a baby’s immune system. Without this funding, the work could not be done.

This support has also contributed to other related projects within our research group, which have in turn helped our Asthma UK funded project. From a more personal perspective, support from Asthma UK has enabled me to continue studying this area of research when I relocated to Swansea.

What do you hope to achieve as a result of your research?

I hope to understand how the environmental factors that a baby is exposed to in the womb affects the development of its immune system in general, and more specifically how this impacts on their response to asthma triggers.

Understanding this should lead to finding new ways that we can prevent asthma occurring in the first place. I also hope to develop a way of identifying newborns most at risk of developing asthma in childhood so that they can be targeted for preventative action.


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