Overview/Mission
PPB’s goals are to improve the health of women before, during, and after pregnancy; increase infant survival; and ensure the long-term health of mothers and children. Specifically, the branch supports research to understand fetal development and improve ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases during pregnancy and in newborns.
As the focal point for NICHD extramural research and training in maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology, and related fields, branch staff also engage with and support investigators to identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for scientific advancement.
- Research Challenges and Competitions: These mechanisms encourage research, development, and innovation among communities that do not traditionally apply for funding support. PPB leads and has led several challenges related to improving maternal health.
- PPB-funded studies available in NICHD’s Data and Specimen Hub (DASH). Researchers, check out data from Collaborative Home Infant Monitoring Evaluation, Community Child Health Research Network, Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research, MFMU Network, National Infant Sleep Position Study, and Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network, to name a few.
- Cochrane Neonatal Review Group
: NICHD supported the group from 1998 through 2017 to provide systematic reviews on neonatology topics. - Infant Feeding Practices Study II (IFPS II): This longitudinal study focused on infant feeding practices throughout the first year after birth and the diets of pregnant women in their third trimesters and at 4 months postpartum. The branch worked closely with the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct the study from 2005 to 2007. De-identified data from this study are available at the CDC website.
- Nahida Chakhtoura, Chief
Main Research Areas: Epidemiology and natural history of HIV in pregnant and non-pregnant women; Zika; women's health; cohort studies and clinical trials; NIH-wide IMPROVE initiative - Stephanie Archer, Clinical Trials Specialist
Main Research Areas: Coordinator for NRN and MFMU Network - Guillermina Girardi, Health Scientist Administrator
Main Research Areas: Reproductive immunology; autoimmunity; recurrent miscarriages; preeclampsia; gestational diabetes; in utero/developmental origins of disease; imaging (MRI and 1HMRS [spectroscopy]) in placental insufficiency and atypical neurodevelopment; translational studies (particularly therapeutic strategies to prevent placental insufficiency) - Diane Gumina, Program Officer
Main Research Areas: Cellular mechanisms of placental insufficiency; development of treatment modalities and improved diagnostic technologies for pregnancy-associated complications; women’s health; translational research and clinical trials - John Ilekis, Program Director/Health Sciences Administrator
Main Research Areas: Cell-, molecular-, and genetic-based studies in pregnancy and perinatology; placental development and function; trophoblast differentiation; basic mechanisms underlying maternal and fetal disorders, such as spontaneous preterm birth, preeclampsia, and fetal growth restriction; parturition; fetal pathophysiology/programming and developmental origins of disease; perinatal microbiome and metagenomics; epigenetics, molecular biomarker discovery - Monica Longo, Medical Officer
Main Research Areas: High-risk pregnancy; hypertensive disorder of pregnancy; diabetes (type 1, type 2, and gestational); fetal developmental origins of health and disease; metabolic and cardiovascular programming; pregnancy as a window of future maternal health; cardiovascular risk after pregnancy - Megan Mitchell, Program Analyst
Main Research Areas: Funding opportunity and announcement development; human subjects research; clinical trials; program analysis/program management - Dorothy Tucker, Staff Assistant
- David Weinberg, Project Lead
Main Research Areas: Human Placenta Project
Highlights
- Road to Prevention of Stillbirth Requests for Applications (RFAs). NIH has published two RFAs to fund research centers and a data coordinating center that will form an integrated and collaborative Stillbirth Research Consortium. This consortium will support stillbirth-relevant basic, translational, clinical, and/or data sciences research across the United States, with a particular emphasis on ways to decrease the incidence of stillbirth in vulnerable populations.
- RFA-HD-25-010: Road to Prevention of Stillbirth – Clinical Research Centers (UG1 Clinical Trial Optional)
- RFA-HD-25-011: The Road to Prevention of Stillbirth – Data Coordinating Center (UM2 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
- The Road to Prevention of Stillbirth Frequently Asked Questions
- News Release: Single-dose antibiotic prevents maternal sepsis and death. Results of an NIH-funded study of the antibiotic azithromycin suggest a potential approach to reduce maternal mortality in low- and middle-income countries.
- News Release: NIH announces winners of data challenge to identify risk factors for first-time pregnancies. Awarded projects of the Decoding Maternal Morbidity Data Challenge seek to reduce pregnancy complications and prevent maternal deaths.
- PPB leads and participates in NICHD’s activities related to COVID-19, especially as it relates to COVID-19 during pregnancy and postpartum.
- HPP Research Showcase: Read about the tools and tests researchers are designing to revolutionize our understanding of the human placenta and to enable the development of safe, noninvasive, real-time assessment of human placenta development and function across pregnancy.
- PPB-supported researchers developed and recently updated a tool using data from the Neonatal Research Network that shows outcome trends for infants born at extremely preterm gestations. To access the tool and learn about the data, visit the Extremely Preterm Birth Outcomes Tool webpage.
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