About Our Center
"I am delighted to announce the Dunlevie Maternal Fetal Medicine Center for Discovery, Innovation and Clinical Impact. This center will become the central hub for maternal-fetal medicine and obstetrics research. This is where you come to collaborate on research on early human development, fetal therapy and pregnancy at Stanford. The momentous and transformative gift from Elizabeth and Bruce Dunlevie will allow us to advance Maternal-Fetal Medicine Science and Practice locally at Stanford, nationally and globally. This gift will positively and profoundly impact the health and wellbeing of expectant mothers, children and families everywhere and for generations to come.
Yasser El-Sayed, MD
Center Director
Advancing the science of maternal-fetal medicine
The Dunlevies’ gift provides $30 million to further develop a world-class Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center at the School of Medicine.
At Stanford Medicine, we already treat complex fetal disorders routinely and regularly. In our clinics and hospitals, we provide life-saving care for babies born prematurely and with severe congenital defects, and are leading the way in pioneering fetal interventions to repair defects.
Yet with nearly two-thirds of the expectant mothers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital being high-risk, there is potential to do more for mothers with underlying conditions such as heart disease, cancer, epilepsy, and diabetes, and for pressing obstetrical issues including preterm labor, placenta accreta, hemorrhage, and cesarean delivery prevention. That's where the Dunlevie Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center for Discovery, Innovation and Clinical Impact comes in.
The Center will accelerate discovery starting from basic science to understand the earliest part of human development, translating findings from the lab into clinical care, to disseminating strategies to improve maternal outcomes across California, the nation, and the globe.
“In our mission to advance precision health, there is no better place to start than at the beginning,” says Lloyd Minor, MD, the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the School of Medicine. “During the crucial period from pre-conception through pregnancy and a baby’s first days, we have the opportunity to improve the trajectory of entire lives. So many families will benefit from the people, programs, and facilities that will receive support from the Dunlevies’ visionary gift.”
Caring for Mothers and Babies Through Precision Medicine
Our faculty are among the best in the country. This gift from the Dunlevie's equates to much needed time and support in order to continue to advance the science and practice of maternal-fetal medicine. To optimize Stanford's impact here in our community and to expand our reach to help pregnant people and babies around the world, the Center provides faculty with the resources to do their most important research.
We aspire to change the trajectory of human disease by advancing the science and knowledge of pregnancy and early fetal development and translating this understanding into improved clinical practice. This will provide hope and a healthy future for all mothers and babies and will make us the strongest program in the country for pregnancy and newborn health.
We have a strong foundation, but we need to make additional investments in facilities, people, and core research capacity in order to fully achieve our vision. We plan to build a robust research core that will bolster the work of all faculty in at the Center, speed research, and enable clinical trials and other scientific studies. In 2022, we hope to recruit four early career faculty and provide them with start-up funding to build their clinical and research programs.