Steven Leach

I am a research scientist specialising in the gastrointestinal microbiome to promote gastrointestinal health and limit the burden of inflammatory disease in infants and children.

My focus is on basic and clinical research to understand and optimise health outcomes in infants and children. My aim is to understand how bacteria colonise the gastrointestinal tract, how these bacteria turn into a community commonly called the microbiome, and how the microbiome interacts with the body.

I work closely with physicians and health care professionals in both the Sydney Children’s Hospital and Royal Hospital for Women and together we look for ways to improve health outcomes in infants and children who suffer from gastrointestinal and associated inflammation disease including inflammatory bowel disease, eczema, allergy, necrotising enterocolitis and irritable bowel syndrome.

I am also the head of laboratory research at Sydney Children’s Hospital and in this role I support a wide range of research projects and clinical trials into childhood disease.