Perinatal Cardiovascular Physiology
Overview
This group undertakes research focusing on the impact of pregnancy on fetal cardiovascular development in health and disease. The Perinatal Cardiovascular Physiology group focuses on answering clinically essential questions and has strong links with clinicians that ensure that our research feeds into the translation pipeline. Our group has a comprehensive suite of techniques and models to test our hypotheses spanning from whole-body investigation of the maternal and fetal physiology to isolated organ, histological and molecular assessments.
Diseases we research
Areas of focus
- What are the mechanisms underlying the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in infants born following fetal growth restriction?
- What is the potential for antenatal treatments such as melatonin and umbilical cord blood cells to attenuate the impact of fetal growth restriction on cardiovascular disease?
- How does exposure to placental insufficiency in utero change the ability of a fetus/newborn to transition to life outside the uterus?
- How does congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) alter pulmonary blood vessel function, and is this worsened by the transition to ex utero life?
- Are there key biomarkers for FGR in utero that we can detect with advanced imaging?
Research Group Head | Dr Beth Allison
Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a common pregnancy complication where babies don’t get enough oxygen and nutrients to thrive in the womb. My research investigates how this chronic oxygen shortage reprograms the fetal heart and cardiovascular system—both before birth and into adult life—to develop new, targeted therapies that can break this cycle of lifelong disease risk.
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