A multi-center study led by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s sheds surprising new light on why some newborns become severely ill from Escherichia coli infection, but others do not.
Turns out that most babies are immune because of germ-fighting antibodies they receive from their moms.
The study, published March 11, 2026, in the prestigious journal Nature, dove into new depths to explore why only some babies develop severe infection to common bacteria. E. coli is a common bacteria that lives in the intestines of nearly all people and is a leading cause of severe infection in newborn babies. The research revealed that the babies that became most severely ill from E. coli infections also had markedly lower levels of germ-fighting antibodies transferred from their mothers.
“This helps explain a…