Protecting little lungs for a lifetime

For most families, a trip to the supermarket is an unremarkable errand. For parents of children born preterm, it can feel like a genuine risk.

Dr Denby Evans, a Wal-yan Respiratory researcher, has been awarded a $25,000 Illuminate Award for her work to change that. Funding by Helping Little Hands, the award was presented at The Kids Research Institute Australia’s 2026 Illuminate PitchFest.

Children born preterm face a significantly higher risk of respiratory infections, not just in infancy, but throughout their entire childhood. The consequences can be serious and lasting. The more severe infections a child experiences, the greater their risk of permanent long-term lung damage. One in four children born preterm will be hospitalised with a respiratory infection.

Despite this, a critical piece of the puzzle is still missing. Researchers don't yet understand what is happening at the cellular level when these children get sick. Are their immune cells overreacting to infection, or not reacting strongly enough? Without that answer, it's impossible to know how to help them.

Dr Evans is working to find out. She already has immune cell samples collected from children born preterm. The next step is to analyse how those cells respond when exposed to infection. This information could reveal exactly which parts of the immune system need support.

The urgency is real. Those samples have been sitting in a freezer for a year, waiting for funding. In that same year, 3,000 more babies were born preterm in Western Australia alone.

With this support, Dr Evans' research has the potential to reshape how we protect the most vulnerable children from the infections that can alter the course of their lung health and their lives.