Dr Nicky Holdstock

Nicky graduated from Cambridge Vet School in 1991. She then worked at Rossdale and Partners, Newmarket, obtaining her PhD on Equine Perinatal Medicine and a certificate in internal and stud medicine. In 2000 she was awarded a clinical lectureship at Cambridge. Since 2004 she has been a recognised Specialist in both Equine Internal Medicine and Stud Medicine, and has performed Expert Witness work. Nicky has also been chief examiner for the RCVS certificate and was on both RCVS and European Educational Boards. She has special interests in fetal/neonatal health and critical care, ultrasonography, and artificial insemination. Nicky has also worked in exotic medicine involving several endangered species breeding programmes. She organises an annual course on Wildlife Game Capture held in South Africa.

My research interests are in developmental physiology with particular emphasis on the endocrine and other mechanisms controlling intrauterine development and its long-term, postnatal consequences. My long term goal is to help identify how conditions during early life programme development and increase susceptibility to adult-onset degenerative diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

In recent years, we have begun to assess the postnatal physiological consequences of altered patterns of intrauterine development. We have shown that environmentally-induced changes in prenatal growth determine postnatal growth, fat deposition, glucose metabolism and the function of several endocrine systems including the pancreas, pituitary, adrenal and adipose tissue. Our studies have used a range of approaches to manipulate the intrauterine environment including embryo transfer, dietary manipulation, hormone administration and multiple pregnancy.