Maternal-Fetal Medicine Annual Research Report
Check out all the incredible work our Maternal-Fetal Medicine faculty have accomplished this past year!
Mission
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Our aim is to conduct rigorous and equitable clinical and basic science research to address scientific questions relevant to pregnancy and reproductive health. We are focused on understanding infectious diseases and immune responses in pregnancy, vaccines and therapeutics, maternal-fetal communication, hypertensive diseases in pregnancy, and placental biology. Through this important work, we strive to enhance reproductive outcomes for our patients across their lifespan.
Notable Achievements
- Among the first to describe the association of genital tract and intrauterine infections with preterm birth
- Among first to use mass-spectrometric proteomics to discover biomarkers for infection, preterm birth, and preeclampsia
- Known for testing immunotherapeutics for the prevention of preterm labor in our nonhuman primate model
Principal Investigators
Kathryn Gray, MD, PhD
Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine Research
Research Interests: Genetics of adverse pregnancy outcomes (including preeclampsia, stillbirth, and fetal anomalies), advancing prenatal genetic screening and diagnosis, medication use in pregnancy
Kathryn Gray's Bibliography
Kristina Adams Waldorf, MD
Research Interests: bacterial and viral infections in pregnancy, host-pathogen interactions in pregnancy, mechanisms of preterm labor, therapeutics and vaccines in pregnancy, tolerance mechanisms within the placenta, innate and adaptive immunity in pregnancy and fetal development, Group B Streptococcus, Zika virus, Influenza A virus, SARS-CoV-2
Centers & Networks: Center for Reproductive Sciences, Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease, Center for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Center for Human Development and Disability, the Pathobiology Program (Department of Global Health) and the Washington National Primate Research Center
Kristina Adams Waldorf's Bibliography
Dana Canfield, MD
Research Interests: The impact of birth experience on postpartum outcomes, shared decision making, factors that influence safety of Trial of Labor After Cesarean (TOLAC), health equity in perinatal care
Dana Canfield's Bibliography
CeCe Cheng, MD
Research Interests: Placenta accreta spectrum disorder, health inequities and global health, medical education, obstetrics quality improvement
CeCe Cheng's Bibliography
Michael Gravett, MD
Research Interests: Preterm labor, perinatal infectious diseases, proteomics, and the maternal-fetal interface
Centers & Networks: Nuffield Dept.of Women's & Reproductive Health University of Oxford, Preterm Birth International Collaborative Global
Michael Gravett's Bibliography
Nobuhiko Hamazaki, PhD
Research Interests: mammalian germ cell development, early embryonic development, genomics and system biology
Centers & Networks: Department of Genome Sciences, ISCRM, BBI
Alisa Kachikis, MD, MSc
Research Interests: preventing pre-term birth, infections and immunizations in pregnancy, global health and health equity
Centers & Networks: Center for Reproductive Science
Alisa Kachikis Bibliography
Stephen McCartney, MD, PhD
Research Interests: placental and reproductive immunology, preeclampsia, preterm birth, infections in pregnancy, biological therapeutics
Centers & Networks: Center for Reproductive Science
Stephen McCartney's Bibliography
Swati Shree, MD
Research Interests: pregnancy and microchimerism, maternal fetal health
Centers & Networks: Center for Reproductive Sciences, Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine, UW Cell-free DNA Working Group
Swati Shree's Bibliography
Lucia Vojtech, PhD
Research Interests: Immune tolerance to pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, reproductive and mucosal immunology
Centers & Networks: Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium, The Human Placenta Project
Lucia Vojtech's Bibliography
Min Yang, PhD
Research Interests: stem cell differentiation and organoids, synthetic embryogenesis, disease modeling, reproductive and maternal-fetal medicine, regenerative medicine