Dr Karen Best is a Principal Research Fellow and leads the Pregnancy and Newborn Health Program within the Women and Kids Theme at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). A Registered Midwife with deep expertise in perinatal research, she has a proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, foster collaborative networks, and drive large-scale research initiatives with national and international impact. Her work is dedicated to understanding the essential role of modifiable exposures in pregnancy and early life in setting the foundations for lifelong health.

Dr Best has attracted over $8.6 million as Chief Investigator on NHMRC and industry-funded grants. Through scientifically rigorous and translational research, she aims to drive meaningful improvements in perinatal care, delivering wide-reaching benefits for mothers and babies.

She completed her PhD in 2015, titled ‘The effect of prenatal omega-3 supplementation on childhood allergic disease at six years of age’, earning a Dean’s Commendation for Thesis Excellence. Her doctoral work involved the long-term follow-up of 668 children from a large prenatal omega-3 randomised controlled trial (RCT) of prenatal omega-3 supplementation to reduce postnatal depression and improve infant neurodevelopment (n=2499). Findings were published in top-ranking journals including Pediatrics and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. These publications were accompanied by supportive editorials and cited in major policy documents, including guidelines from the Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Following her PhD, Dr Best led the ORIP Trial, the world’s largest RCT of omega-3 supplementation in pregnancy to reduce preterm birth (n=5544). This landmark national trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, provided definitive evidence for omega-3 supplementation in pregnancy. Subsequent analyses identified which women are most likely to benefit to benefit from omega-3 supplementation to prevent preterm birth, paving the way for global clinical translation. Her work has directly influenced key policy documents, including the 2021 Australian Pregnancy Care Guidelines and the 2022 ISSFAL Guidelines on Omega-3 and Preterm Birth Prevention.

In 2019, she was awarded the prestigious MS McLeod Post-doctoral Fellowship, supporting her continued leadership in perinatal research and translation.

Building on the success of ORIP, Dr Best now leads the world’s first Omega-3 Test-and-Treat Program, supported by a $1.66 million MRFF grant. In partnership with SA Pathology, the program delivers a precision nutrition approach, testing omega-3 levels in early pregnancy and providing supplementation guidance based on individual status. Now embedded in routine care, the program has engaged over 30,000 women and 1,200 GPs. It demonstrates a scalable model for reducing early preterm birth and has laid the groundwork for national implementation. This work was featured in the 2024 NHMRC ‘Impact Case Study’ and recognised as one of NHMRC’s ‘10 of the Best’.

Dr Best currently leads a broader program of innovative perinatal trials with strong local and national collaboration. She is an Investigator on several industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated projects and is currently leading  The PoppiE Trial, a landmark MRFF-funded national study examining the optimal level of iodine supplementation in pregnancy to support infant neurodevelopment.

In recognition of her contributions to maternal and infant health research, Dr Best was recently awarded the 2025 Health Development Adelaide (HDA) Women’s Excellence in Research Award.

Research Interests

• Investigation of modifiable exposures (nutrition, environment) in the perinatal period to optimise childhood outcomes.
• Preventative health strategies to optimise the prenatal period and improve lifelong health outcomes
• Implementation and evaluation of evidence-based health care
• Novel clinical trial methods, decentralised trials, e-recruitment/consent and digital retention strategies.

Research Interests

• Investigation of modifiable exposures (nutrition, environment) in the perinatal period to optimise childhood outcomes.
• Preventative health strategies to optimise the prenatal period and improve lifelong health outcomes
• Implementation and evaluation of evidence-based health care
• Novel clinical trial methods, decentralised trials, e-recruitment/consent and digital retention strategies.