Lactation research centre secured with £9m donation

The university said very little was known about how hormones regulate milk production and influence mother-baby bonding

A research centre investigating the role of hormones in human milk production has received a £9m gift from a philanthropic organisation that promotes breastfeeding.

The University of Oxford said the Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Oxford Centre for the Endocrinology of Human Lactation was the only research centre in the UK focused on the "critical" topic.

Its future has now been secured thanks to the donation by the Swiss Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation.

The establishment is embedded within the Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health and it aims to improve global breastfeeding outcomes.

Prof Krina Zondervan (second from the right), said they wanted to "fill knowledge gaps that can improve lactation and breastfeeding outcomes"

The university said despite human milk's "vital nutritional and health benefits for babies" very little was currently known about how hormones regulate its production and influence mother-baby bonding.

Centre leader Prof Fadil Hannan said building understanding of it was "crucial to helping mothers who are struggling to breastfeed".

The centre was established in 2018 with an initial donation of £2.9m from the foundation.

The new money will be used to support projects that focus on generating pilot data from innovative ideas.

Head of department Prof Krina Zondervan said their vision was to "fill knowledge gaps that can improve lactation and breastfeeding outcomes".

Established in Switzerland in 2013, the Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation promotes breastfeeding and supports research in human milk and lactation.

President of the board Dr Marco Steiner said the endowment "enables the world-renowned University of Oxford to target a neglected research topic – the physiology of breastfeeding".

"Because this work is taking place in the John Radcliffe Hospital, the team is in a wonderful position to support breastfeeding mothers, making practical, meaningful differences in the lives of families every day," he said.

The foundation has also supported four other independent research centres in this field – two at the University of Zurich, one at the University of Western Australia and another at the University of California.