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Their immune systems are generally weaker, especially if undernutrition is in the mix.

The research model created by UVA's Carrie A. Cowardin, PhD, and colleagues provides a more sophisticated way to study the effects of undernutrition on the microbiome, the microbes that naturally live inside the gut, and, in turn, on growth and the immune system.

A new tool developed at the University of Virginia School of Medicine will help doctors and scientists better understand and overcome childhood undernutrition that contributes to almost half of all deaths of children under 5.

This new model of "intergenerational colonization," they determined, better mimicked the effect of undernutrition during early childhood.

That suggests Cowardin's new approach offers a better way to study childhood undernutrition.