PREMATURITY RESEARCH CENTERS
FIVE CENTERS, ONE GOAL— ENDING PRETERM BIRTH
As part of our integrated research strategy, we remain committed to expanding knowledge and developing diagnostic and therapeutic tools for preterm birth. Our Prematurity Research Centers (PRCs), located at hospitals, medical centers and universities in the U.S. and London, are advancing this critical research.
Imperial College, London
Research themes
Host microbe interactions
Researchers: David MacIntyre, Ph.D., Lynne Sykes, MD, Ten Feizi, Anne Dell, Stuart Haslam and Samit Kundu.
- Conducting a clinical trial for a microbiome supplement to prevent preterm birth.
Mechanisms of preterm birth in HIV infected women
Researchers: Charlotte-Eve Short, Ph.D. and Graham Taylor.
- Investigating the relationship between HIV infection and antiretroviral therapy choice and preterm birth rates.
Development of rapid miRNA based predictive tests for cervical shortening and preterm labor
Researchers: Vasso Terzidou and Sylvain Ladame, Ph.D.
- Developing and validating a point-of-care test to access the risk of preterm birth.
Public health study on the epidemiology of preterm birth in the UK with neonatal outcomes
Researchers: Malko Adnan, MSc and Paul Aylin.
- Evaluating the relationship between pregnancy and inequities of outcomes experienced by Black African and Black Caribbean women.
- Exploring the relationship between pregnancy events, biomarkers and medium/long term outcomes in preterm neonates using public health data and interviews.
- Exploring the psychological, social, familial and societal impact of spontaneous preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies.
University of Pennsylvania
Research themes
Placental dysfunction
Researchers: Sam Parry, MD and Rebecca Simmons, MD.
- Multi-omics study of placentas from early spontaneous preterm birth from different clinical phenotypes, characterizing the differing metabolic signatures and associated gene expression data as predictive markers.
- Investigating the variation in mitochondrial DNA levels as biomarkers of placental dysfunction and predictive of preterm birth, taking into consideration race, fetal sex and maternal stress.
- Determining if placental exosome levels in the maternal blood are different in spontaneous preterm birth compared to controls, and to identify the protein and miRNA cargo in the exosomes as signs of the source of placental dysfunction.
Stanford University
Stanford University
Research themes
The immunome and preterm birth
Researchers: Brice Gaudilliere, MD, Ph.D., Nima Aghaeepour, Ph.D. and Martin Angst, MD.
- Characterizing the dynamic changes in maternal blood to predict and prevent preeclampsia.
A community-hospital approach: Low-dose aspirin for PTB and preeclampsia
Researchers: David Stevenson, MD, Elliott Main, MD and Henry Lee, MD.
- Targeting low-dose aspirin initiative for preeclampsia, with community education engagement and quality initiatives for providers and hospitals.
University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
Research themes
Data integration and computational analysis
Researchers: Marina Sirota, Ph.D. and Tomiko Oskotsky, MD.
- Established a data repository for preterm birth by aggregating and integrating data sets from all PRCs. Access this open database at pretermbirthdb.org/mod/home.
- The database can support the development of computational approaches to identify specific determinants of preterm birth and help investigate interventions for preterm birth.
Drug discovery and immunology efforts for preterm birth
Researchers: Marina Sirota, PhD in collaboration with David Stevenson, MD and Brice Gaudilliere, MD, PhD (Stanford) and Sing Sing Way, MD, PhD (Ohio Collaborative)
Leveraging electronic medical records for prematurity research
Researchers: Marina Sirota, PhD and Tony Capra, PhD
University of Chicago-Northwestern-Duke
Research themes
Regulatory variation and networks in preterm birth
Researchers: Carole Ober, Ph.D., University of Chicago, William Grobman, MD, Northwestern University, Chad Grotegut, MD, Duke University.
- Characterizing how gene expression responds to stages of pregnancy and how those changes affect pregnancy outcomes.
Ohio Collaborative (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Case Western Reserve and Vanderbilt University)
Research themes
From gene discovery in human pregnancy to mechanism for birth
Researchers: Ge Zhang, MD, PhD., Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Scott Williams, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University.
- Identifying genes that affect a woman’s risk for preterm birth to develop clinical interventions.
Genomic discovery and dissection of maternal/fetal genetic effects on gestational duration and pregnancy outcomes
Researchers: Lou Muglia, MD, Ph.D.
- Investigating maternal immune cell interaction with progesterone to prevent pregnancy complications.
- Analyzing genes to discover the mechanism for birth timing.
Understanding the evolutionary and phenotypic diversity of preterm birth
Researchers: Antonis Rokas, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University and Tony Capra, Ph.D., UCSF.
- Understanding the evolutionary and phenotypic diversity of preterm birth.
