Objective: Research efforts to advance our understanding of prematurity and adverse outcomes for the preterm offspring
Mission: To foster interdisciplinary and collaborative research efforts to advance our understanding of prematurity and adverse outcomes for the preterm offspring.
Specific Goals:
1. To elucidate the mechanisms and causes by which spontaneous preterm birth occurs. This research should include, but is not limited to, investigations on the signal transduction pathways activated in the uterus in preterm birth, the role of cervical ripening in preterm birth, the contribution of racial disparities to preterm birth, the role of the microbiome and the host immune response to preterm birth, and the genetic (maternal, fetal and paternal) and environmental (maternal, intrauterine) factors that contribute to preterm birth.
2. To understand the broad impact of prematurity on adverse outcomes including both short term and long-term morbidities (with emphasis on neurobehavioral and cognitive outcomes). This research should focus on the role of the etiology of preterm birth (spontaneous/iatrogenic) in
adverse outcomes, on investigations to the role of inflammation in adverse outcomes specifically targeting inflammation-induced brain and lung injury, on understanding the contribution of post-natal ‘exposures’ (medical interventions in the NICU, infections, living environment) to adverse outcomes, on exploring the genetic and epigenetic contribution to adverse outcomes.
3. To develop strategies that will provide for accurate risk stratification of women at risk for preterm birth and for preterm fetuses/neonates at greatest risk for adverse outcomes to allow for interventional studies. These research efforts should include innovative and novel techniques including but not limited to proteomics, genomics, and metagenomics that will allow for novel biomarker discovery. In addition, this research should take advantage of animal models that allow for novel explorations that cannot begin in the human.
Methods to Achieve these Goals
1. Encourage and foster collaborations for current research efforts and future grant submissions
2. Review important literature in a interdisciplinary forum to fully understand the impact on care, current and future research efforts
3. Know other experts and type of research occurring in this field to allow for improved research methods and to increase likelihood of important discovery
4. To be on the cutting edge of new ideas and methods by meeting/hearing experts/leaders on innovative techniques, methods, animal models, and important pathways that might impact this field.
Leader of PRG: Michal A. Elovitz, MD
Contact: melovitz@obgyn.upenn.edu
215-573-0859