Member's Profile

Medical training at Bristol University, UK, qualified 1979. Post-graduate training in Internal Medicine, General Practice, and Paediatrics. Current clinical work: paediatric endocrinology and diabetes. In full-time research since 1989, working with Professor DJP Barker on the hypothesis that nutritional imbalances in utero lead to adult coronary heart disease (CHD) and non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM). Her early research, based on the Hertfordshire birth records, was first to show a link between low birthweight and adult diabetes. Subsequently showed associations between poor early growth and altered adult growth hormone concentrations, left ventricular mass and bone mass, and between childhood living conditions and adult Helicobacter pylori infection.
A major research interest is the possible fetal origins of the rise of CHD and NIDDM taking place among urban and migrant Indian populations. Current research collaborations in India with the KEM Hospital Pune, the Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysore, CMC Hospital, Vellore, and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
Special areas of study: a) inter-generational effects of the epidemiologic transition on materno-fetal nutrition and adult glucose/insulin metabolism and b) effects of the mother's diet and body composition on fetal growth, and on the development of insulin resistance in her offspring.
Holds programme research grants from the Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation.
International organising secretary for the First World Congress on Fetal Origins of Adult Disease.
Member, 2nd British Nutrition Foundation Task Force on Diet and Cardiovascular Disease, convened May 2001.
Member USAID/Wellcome working group on micronutrients and reproductive health, convened September 2001.

Important Publications :
1.	Bavdekar A, Yajnik CS, Fall CHD, Bapat S, Pandit AN, Deshpande V, Bhave S, Kellingray SD, Joglekar C. The insulin resistance syndrome (IRS) in eight-year-old Indian children: small at birth, big at 8 years or both? Diabetes 2000;48:2422-9.
2.	Kinare AS, Natekar AS, Chinchwadkar MC, Yajnik CS, Coyaji KJ, Fall CHD, Howe DT. Low mid-pregnancy placental volume in rural Indian women: a cause for low birthweight? (The Pune Maternal Nutrition and Fetal Growth Study). Am J O G 2000;182:443-8.
3.	Barker DJP, Fall CHD. The immediate and long-term consequences of low birthweight. In Technical Consultation on Low Birthweight. Unicef NYHQ 2000.
4.	45. Fall CHD The 'Barker' Hypothesis and Maternal body composition: implications for low birthweight. Invited lectures. International Symposium and workshop on Low Birthweight. Centre for Health and Population Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 1999. Published as ACC/SCN Nutrition Policy Paper #8 ‘Low Birthweight’, 2000.
5.	46. Kumaran K, Fall CHD, Martyn CN, Vijayakumar M, Stein CE, Shier R. Blood pressure, arterial compliance and left ventricular mass; no relation to small size at birth in South Indian adults. Heart 2000;83:272-7.
6.	Hill JC, Krishnaveni GV, Fall CHD, Kellingray SD. Glucose tolerance and insulin status during pregnancy in South India: relationships to maternal and neonatal body composition. J Endocrinol 2000;164 (Suppl): P252.
7.	Fall CHD, Clark PM, Hindmarsh PC, Clayton PE, Shiell AW, Law CM. Urinary GH and IGF-I excretion in 9-year old children; relation to sex, current size and size at birth. Clinical Endocrinology 2000;53:69-76.
8.	Rao S, Yajnik CS, Kanade A, Fall CHD, Margetts BM, Jackson AA, Shier R, Joshi S, Rege S, Lubree H, Desai B. Maternal fat intakes and micronutrient status are related to fetal size at birth in rural India; the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study. J Nutr 2001;131:1217-1224.
9.	Fall CHD. Developing Countries and Affluence in Type 2 Diabetes: the thrifty phenotype. Ed DJP Barker. British Medical Bulletin 2001;60:33-50.
10.	Charmandari E, Pincus SM, Matthews DR, Fall CHD, Hindmarsh PC Joint Growth Hormone and Cortisol Spontaneous Secretion is More Asynchronous in Older Females than in their Male Counterparts. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2001;86:3393-9.
11.	Yajnik CS, Coyaji KJ, Joglekar CV, Kellingray S, Fall CHD. Paternal insulin resistance and fetal growth: problem for the ‘fetal insulin’ and the ‘fetal origins’ hypotheses. Diabetologia 2001;44:1197-1201.
12..	Kumaran K, Fall CHD, Martyn CN, Vijayakumar M, Stein CE, Shier R. Left ventricular mass and arterial compliance: relation to coronary heart disease and its risk factors in South Indian adults. Int J Cardiol 2002;83:1-9.
13.	Fall CHD, Dennison E, Cooper C, Pringle J, Kellingray SD, Hindmarsh P. Does birthweight predict adult serum cortisol concentrations? Twenty-four-hour profiles in the UK 1920-1930 Hertfordshire birth cohort. JCEM 2002;87:2001-7.
14.	O'Dell SD, Syddall HE, Sayer AA, Cooper C, Fall CH, Dennison EM, Phillips DI, Gaunt TR, Briggs PJ, Day IN. Null mutation in human ciliary neurotrophic factor gene confers higher body mass index in males. Eur J Human Genetic 2002;10:749-52.
15.	Newsome CA, Shiell AW, Fall CHD, Phillips DIW, Shier R, Law CM. Is birthweight related to later glucose and insulin metabolism? A systematic review. Diabetic Med 2003;23:339-348.
16.	Yajnik CS, Fall CHD, Coyaji KJ, Hirve SS, Rao S, Barker DJP, Joglekar C, Kellingray S. Neonatal anthropometry: the thin-fat Indian baby; the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study. Int J Obesity 2003;27:173-180.
17.	Rao S, Kanade A, Margetts BM, Yajnik CS, Lubree H, Rege S, Desai B, Jackson AA, Fall CHD. Maternal activity in relation to birth size in rural India; the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study. Eur J Clin Nutr 2003 :57:531-542.
18.	Leary SD, Godfrey KM, Greenaway L, Davill V, Fall CHD. Contribution of the umbilical cord and membranes to untrimmed placental weight. Placenta 2003 24,276-278.
19.	Kajantie E, Fall CHD, Seppälä M, Koistinen R, Dunkel L, Ylihärsilä H, Osmond C, Andersson S, Barker DJP, Forsén T, Holt RIG, Phillips DIW, Eriksson J. Serum IGF-I and IGFBP-1 in elderly people: relationships with cardiovascular risk factors, body composition, size at birth, and childhood growth. JCEM 2003:88;1059-1065.
20.	Dennison EM, Hindmarsh PC, Kellingray S, Fall CHD, Cooper C. Growth hormone predicts bone density in elderly women. Bone 2003:32:434-440.
21.	Fall CHD. The fetal and early life origins of adult disease. Review. Indian Pediatrics 2003:40:480-502.
22.	Ward AMV, Fall CHD, Stein CE, Kumaran K, Veena SR, Wood PJ, Syddall HE, Phillips DIW. Cortisol and the metabolic syndrome in South Asians. Clin Endocrinol 2003:58:500-505.
23.	Fall CHD, Yajnik CS, Rao S, Davies AA, Brown N, Farrant HJW. Micronutrients and fetal growth. J Nut 2003:133:1747S-1756S.
24.	Yajnik CS, Joglekar CV, Pandit AN, Bavdekar AR, Bapat SA, Bhave SA, Leary SD, Fall CHD. Higher offspring birthweight predicts the metabolic syndrome in mothers but not fathers 8 years after delivery. Diabetes 2003;52:2090-6.
25.	Holt RIG, Syddall HE, Phillips DIW, Martyn CN, Gluckman PD, Breier BH, Wood PJ, Fall CHD. Serum insulin-like growth factor- I concentrations in late middle age: no association with birth weight in three UK cohorts. Acta Physiol Scand 2004 (in press).
26.	Bhargava SK, Sachdev HPS, Fall CHD, Osmond C, Lakshmy R, Barker DJP, Dey Biswas SK, Ramji S, Prabharkaran D, Reddy KS. Relation of serial changes in childhood body mass index to impaired glucose tolerance in young adulthood. New England J Med 2004;350:865-75.
27.	Arden NK, Syddall HE, Javaid MK, Dennison EM, Swaminathan R, Fall C, Cooper C. Early life influences on serum 1,25 (OH)2 vitamin D. Paed Perinatal Epidemio 2004 (in press).
28.	Veena SR, Kumaran K, Swarnagowri MN, Jayakumar MN, Leary SD, Stein CE, Cox V, Fall CHD. Intergenerational effects on size at birth in South India. Paed Perinatal Epidemiol 2004 (in press).
29.	Hill JC, Krishnaveni GV, Annamma I, Leary S, Fall CHD. Glucose tolerance in pregnancy in South India; relationships to neonatal anthropometry. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 2004 (in press).