DrSamantha Dawson

The overarching aim of my research is to help break the intergenerational cycle of mental disorder by supporting families to improve their diet quality in a manner that targets relevant underlying biological pathways.  I established and now lead the Perinatal Nutritional Psychiatry research stream within the Food and Mood Centre (FAMC).  I have secured over $7M in research funding (predominately Category 1) to our support Perinatal Nutritional Psychiatry research, including an NHMRC Investigator Grant (Emerging Leader 1). In addition, I prioritise the research development of HDR students and ECRs and have senior authored a range of studies published in high impact journals (e.g. The British Journal of Psychiatry, BMC Medicine)

My research has advanced our understanding of the microbial and inflammatory mechanisms linking prenatal diet to maternal and child mental health and translates this knowledge into scalable intervention strategies. I am the Sponsor Principal Investigator of The Bugs & Bumps Study, a digital dietary intervention for pregnant women, developed from the 4-year Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids randomised controlled trial, which I also led. This earlier trial tested the efficacy of improving perinatal diet quality and altering the gut microbiota in mothers and infants. Now, as Chief Investigator A, I secured over $1 million in competitive funding to evaluate the Bugs & Bumps intervention in an RCT, assessing child emotional, behavioural, and neurocognitive outcomes at 18 months of age. We have since secured a further $3 million from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to scale up and trial the app in a multi-site, 5-year randomised controlled trial across rural and regional Victoria, commencing in 2026.

I also lead a diet-focused co-design theme of research within The Pregnancy Research and Translation Ecosystem (PRT-E) in southwestern Victoria, focused on improving perinatal diet quality in real-world settings. PRT-E is a platform for co-design research between the community, pregnancy care, and researchers and is a partnership between Deakin University, Barwon Health and The Western Alliance. I secured $80,000 in funding to enable PRT-E to continue beyond 2022.

Find out more about my research journey in the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation's annual report: https://impact.deakin.edu.au/about/#flipbook-pdf_1/22