About Imperial Preterm Birth
We are a team of clinical doctors, scientists & research midwives based in the Institute of Reproductive Health & Biology at Imperial College London. Our work is dedicated into investigating the causes of preterm birth & its prevention.
Imperial Preterm Birth Description
Globally there are 15 million preterm births a year. It is the leading cause of death in children under the age of five and survivors are more at risk of cerebral palsy, blindness and respiratory problems.
Currently, we do not have accurate ways to predict preterm birth, or subsequently find out why a mother has delivered early. Our group is investigating the mechanisms behind PTB to provide better diagnostic tools and treatments.
https://www. imperial. nhs. uk /research /research-trials /reproductive-health-research-trials
Reviews
Yesterday, at the Work In Progress seminar, Hanine Fourie presented her research in the EPOS study. This is a prospective study on how events like bleeding or pain impact on short and long term pregnancy outcomes. Well done! 👏👏
Huge congratulations to Dr Holly Lewis who on Friday was awarded 2nd prize at the Royal Society of Medicine Herbert Reiss and Dame Josephine Barnes prize meeting for her work on DESI-MS swab profiling in pregnancy. This technique (developed in collaboration with Prof Zoltan Takats and his team) allows for measurement of chemicals in the reproductive tract directly from a simple swab in only a few minutes. It gives insight into the presence/absence of different bacteria and whether Mum is responding in a positive/negative way during pregnancy. We think this information might be useful for predicting preterm birth in some women and might help doctors decide the best treatment options.
New from us!
Congratulations to Dr Vasso Terzidou and the rest of the team on their recent publication that identifies small molecules in blood in the first trimester of pregnancy that are able to predict preterm birth and cervical shortening in women at risk of preterm delivery.
We are really excited about these findings as the ability to predict preterm birth at this key period in early pregnancy allows time to deliver outcome-modifying interventions. For more details, pl...ease check out the full article below:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-01 9-42166-1…
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It was fantastic to hear Zahirrah and Denise presenting at the Society for Reproductive Investigation Annual Meeting #sri2019 in #Paris Well done!
Few weeks ago at the #sri2019 in #Paris we had the chance to present some of our work. Check this #poster session
Bonjour! Everything is ready for the 66th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Reproductive Investigation #sri2019 We're really excited to follow the news of leading scientists and clinical investigators. Let's start with the #pretermbirth #symposium
New paper from our team! In this study we investigated the relationship between the composition of bacteria in the reproductive tract and the outcome of rescue cerclage. While we found that insertion of a rescue cerclage does not affect the underlying bacterial composition in the majority of cases, high levels of a bacteria called G. vaginalis are associated with unsuccessful rescue cerclage cases.
Please click on the link below for full details of the study. Congrats Richard and team!
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/… /10.…/1471-0528.15600
Imperial Preterm Birth is now on #instagram too
Follow us to receive the latest contents! https://www.instagram.com/imperialpreterm birth/
Another day of #research! That's were we work. Stay with us, exciting things are coming! #pretermbirth
Happy International Women's Day 2019! #BalanceforBetter #marchofdimes
New paper from our team! This study follows up our previous work, which identified a link between reduced levels of a type of bacteria called Lactobacillus and increased risk of PPROM. Here we investigate when in pregnancy these bacteria are lost in women who then go on to have PPROM and preterm birth.
https://www.translationalres.com/…/S193 1-5244(18)3…/fulltext
Our team at the new March of Dimes European Preterm Birth Research Centre at Imperial College London are celebrating World Prematurity Day 2018 with our wonderful PPI parents, gaining insight into how our research can help future mums and babies! March of Dimes #worldprematurityday #prematurityis #lightitpurple
Calling all parents! The next Imperial Preterm Birth Studies PPI meeting is on Sat 7th July (10 00 - 1230) at Queen Charlottes Hospital.
Please join us to discuss our new and ongoing research studies. Your valuable opinions and advice will help us shape future projects!
Tea, coffee, cakes and childcare provided 😊... If you would like to come or want more information please email : L.sykes@imperial.ac.uk
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Please take a look at Genesis Research Trust's new campaign to stop baby loss and support if you can!
https://genesisresearchtrust.com/stopbaby loss/
L-R: Zahirrah, Lynne, Fabienne, David and Denise representing the Imperial Preterm Birth team at the European Spontaneous Preterm Birth Congress last week in Edinburgh. Nice weather too!
Genesis Research Trust are a charity that fund a lot of our preterm birth research at Imperial. They are looking for families who have experienced a premature birth to be a part of their new media campaign. If you would like more information please contact Martin (m.gozdzik@imperial.ac.uk)
https://www.genesisresearchtrust.com/
Imperial NHS Trust are launching a Maternity Voice Partnership group where health service users (mums and dads) can get involved in making a difference to our maternity service at St Marys and Queen Charlottes Hospital. If you would like to find out more, the launch event is this Friday 20th April at Queen Charlotte's Hospital.
Congratulations to Zahirrah and Holly who were both awarded prizes at this year's Society for Reproductive Investigation meeting in San Diego!!