Researchers have uncovered a potential breakthrough that could help inform treatments for a life-threatening disease that affects premature babies.

Each year, 26,000 babies in Australia are born pre-term.

Professor Marcel Nold from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research said their research may help in the treatment of necrotising enterocolitis, which affects a baby’s intestines.

“It’s a severe disease that affects the guts of babies that are born prematurely,” he told Deborah Knight.

“We have uncovered the immune pathways that drive the inflammation in this disease.

“We’ve found a few new insights that hopefully in the future we can translate into very exciting therapies.”

He said it was “incredibly rewarding” when pre-term babies finally get to go home, after months in neonatal units.

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