Human Placenta Project

Human Placenta Project logoThe placenta is arguably one of the most important organs in the body. It influences not just the health of a woman and her fetus during pregnancy, but also the lifelong health of both mother and child.

Despite its importance, we know little about this critical but temporary organ. NICHD's Human Placenta Project is a collaborative research effort to understand the role of the placenta in health and disease. The project supports development of new tools to study the organ in real time to learn how it develops and functions throughout pregnancy.

The success of this effort relies on the contributions of a broad range of scientists and clinicians, including experts in placental biology, as well as creative thinkers in biotechnology, imaging, data science, and other areas.

Check out the Fact Sheet: The Human Placenta Project (PDF 143 KB) for more information. You can also learn more about how the placenta forms.

Visit the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database to access all recent scientific articles from the HPP.

Understanding Human Placental Structure and Function in Real Time: Current Progress and Future Directions (May 10-11, 2021)

Current Progress and Future Directions for the Human Placenta Project (November 13-14, 2018)

Current Progress and Future Directions for the Human Placenta Project (July 24-25, 2017)

Incorporating Novel Technology into the Human Placenta Project (April 14-15, 2016) 

Incorporating "–Omics" and Imaging into the Human Placenta Project (April 27–28, 2015)

Placental Structure and Function in Real Time (May 27–28, 2014)

Since the project launched, NIH has awarded more than $50 million in Human Placenta Project grants. All funded projects are listed in NIH RePORTER.

2018 Funding Opportunities and Funded Projects

  • Novel Approaches to Safe, Non-Invasive, Real Time Assessment of Human Placenta Development and Function Across Pregnancy (Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  • Moving Beyond Standard Assessments: Applying Novel Tools to Assess Human Placental Structure and Function in Real Time
  • Funded projects for 2018

2017 Funding Opportunities and Funded Projects

2016 Funding Opportunities and Funded Projects

2015 Funding Opportunities and Funded Projects

  • Developing Paradigm-Shifting Innovations for in vivo Human Placental Assessment in Response to Environmental Influences 
  • Novel Tools to Assess Human Placental Structure and Function
  • Funded projects for 2015

Funding Opportunities for Other Types of Placental Research (Non-Human Placenta Project)

Q. Scientists have been studying the placenta for a long time. What's different about this research effort?
A. Past studies of the human placenta have focused largely on the organ after delivery.

To fully understand the placenta and how it works, we need to study it during pregnancy, while it's still doing its job. The Human Placenta Project accelerates the development and application of innovative—and safe—technologies and approaches that will give researchers a new and dynamic picture of placental structure and function in real time. This information will help us better understand how the human placenta develops and how it works to ensure a successful pregnancy.

Q. Why the focus on the "human" placenta? Does that mean you aren't supporting work on animal and other model systems?
A. Model systems are critical to placental research, allowing researchers to perform studies that are not possible in humans. Much of what we know about placental biology to date has come from the study of model systems, and NICHD remains committed to supporting this research.

However, model systems can never be perfect substitutes for humans. The Human Placenta Project addresses gaps in our understanding by allowing researchers to monitor human placental health in real time. This knowledge may improve the ability of healthcare providers to evaluate pregnancy risks and, in the future, lead to better pregnancy outcomes.

To reach that goal, additional research in animal models may be necessary. However, for the Human Placenta Project, we are interested in animal studies only if they have a clear path for eventual translation to humans. NICHD continues to support other basic research in placental biology through the funding of investigator-initiated proposals and other initiatives.

Researchers interested in non-HPP funding opportunities for placental research may wish to review our program announcement on trophoblast differentiation and function (PA-16-445) or contact John Ilekis, Ph.D., who manages NICHD grants that address the physiology, biochemistry, and genetics of the placenta.

Q. Are you accepting donated placentas for use in research?
A. No. We do not currently have a repository for placentas or placental tissue. We are exploring ways to promote this type of opportunity in the future.

Q. What projects are funded?
A. More information about our funded projects is available on NIH RePORTER, which provides details such as the project's description, principal investigator, organization, and cost. To streamline the list, we have included just one entry per project, showing the initial year of funding. However, all these projects are multi-year awards, pending progress and the availability of funds.

The Human Placenta Project was inspired by the NICHD Scientific Vision (PDF 2 MB) and is described in these articles:

  • Guttmacher, A. E., & Spong, C. Y. (2015). The Human Placenta Project: It's time for real time. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 213(4 Suppl), S3-S5. PMID: 26428502
  • Sadovsky, Y., Clifton, V. L., & Burton, G. J. (2014). Invigorating placental research through the “Human Placenta Project.” Placenta, 35(8), 527. PMID: 24997635
  • Guttmacher, A. E., Maddox, Y. T., & Spong, C.Y. (2014). The Human Placenta Project: Placental structure, development, and function in real time. Placenta, 35(5), 303-4. PMID: 24661567

The project has five main research objectives:

  • Improve current methods and develop new technologies for real-time assessment of placental development across pregnancy.
  • Apply these technologies to understand and monitor, in real time, placental development and function in typical and atypical pregnancies.
  • Develop and evaluate non-invasive markers for prediction of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
  • Understand the contributions of placental development to long-term health and disease.
  • Develop interventions to prevent atypical placental development and hence improve pregnancy outcomes.

The project complements NICHD's portfolio of basic placental research and supports development of new tools to study the organ in real time to learn how it develops and functions throughout pregnancy. That knowledge may one day prevent and treat a range of common pregnancy complications, while also providing insights into other areas of science and medicine.

These profiles highlight some of the labs that received funding from the Human Placenta Project. Their research includes basic understanding of the human placenta, innovative imaging techniques, approaches to evaluating structure and function, and more.

Human Placenta Project Research Findings

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