Associate Professor Karen Moritz is a NH&MRC Senior Research Fellow in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland. The aim of her work is to understand how prenatal perturbations contribute to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease in adulthood. Over the last 5-7 years, her research has focused on determining the pivotal role played by the kidney in the “developmental programming” of adult disease. Her research has shown a reduced nephron endowment is associated with hypertension and renal impairment in the adult following excess maternal glucocorticoid exposure, maternal low protein diet, placental insufficiency and most recently, prenatal alcohol exposure.