Laurentya Olga

I am a medical doctor from Indonesia, where I also spent 4 years practicing medicine. Additionally, I was also involved in clinical studies involving babies, mainly to promote exclusive breastfeeding. I came to Cambridge in April 2015 to do an MPhil in Medical Science in the Clinical Pharmacology Unit. My work was on isolating aldosterone-producing cells from primary adrenals. I also did a 3-month internship at Cambridge Cardiovascular, working under Dr Xuan Li.

I am working under Prof David Dunger and Prof Ken Ong’s supervision. My work in the Department of Paediatrics is about studying the determinant antenatal and nutritional factors of infant weight gain and body composition of infants born-small-for-gestational age and infants of mothers with diabetes. There is now strong evidence that early-life exposures affect later-life obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. Both extremes of nutritional provision, overnutrition and undernourishment, in fetal or early postnatal have a long-lasting adverse effect. Both are represented in the cohort I am working with.