Two researchers awarded seed funding through the Center

The Dunlevie Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center for Discovery, Innovation and Clinical Impact has a mission to empower an arc of discovery and implementation in maternal-fetal science. Aligned with this mission, the Center announced a seed-funding opportunity for researchers at Stanford working on projects that advance maternal-fetal medicine science. Today, we are excited to announce the recipients of the Spring 2023 seed grants: Katherine Bianco, MD, and Anca Pasca, MD.

Director of Research Anna Girsen, MD, PhD, shares, “We were delighted to see an increased interest for our seed grants this cycle with several novel research proposals. After a rigorous review, we are excited to fund these two projects that will advance the science of maternal-fetal medicine from different angles.”

Continue reading to learn more about the funded projects.

Katherine Bianco, MD

Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Bianco’s proposal, “Biologic Age in Pregnancy of Advanced Maternal Age,” was selected because investigation of the methylome as a predictor of adverse pregnancy outcomes among patients with advanced age is a novel idea that could lead to an approach that is more informative than the risk based on patient’s chronological age and could also shed light to our understanding of the biology of adverse pregnancy outcomes. 

Pregnancies in patients of advanced maternal age (i.e., 35 years of age or older) have traditionally been considered “at risk” for both the pregnant person and the baby. Yet delayed childbearing is increasingly common, and many patients of advanced maternal age have pregnancies with healthy outcomes. In the field of maternal-fetal medicine, this prompts a compelling question: Is chronological age, or age by birthdate, an accurate predictor of pregnancy outcomes in advanced maternal age?

Recently, there has been an explosion in interest regarding the use of biological age, which considers the aging of cells, rather than chronological age, to predict health outcomes. However, this has yet to be studied robustly in women’s health and specifically in pregnancy. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the impact of pre-pregnancy biological age on pregnancy outcomes and complications in a population with advanced maternal age. Identifying biomarkers that can more definitively predict the risk of advanced maternal age on a woman’s pregnancy course is an ambitious step forward in maternal-fetal medicine and precision diagnostics, work that one day will enable clinicians to better triage and monitor these patients. Utilizing the rich repository of the Stanford ROSE biobank and emerging technology to calculate cellular aging, blood samples from infertility patients ages 35 and over who subsequently became pregnant will be analyzed to produce DNA “clocks” to determine each sample’s biologic age, and whether it is accelerated or slowed in comparison to chronologic age. These biologic findings will then be analyzed in the context of the patient’s pregnancy outcomes, including all known complications of advanced maternal age. If successful, this novel pilot work will one day allow clinicians to better predict and prevent adverse perinatal outcomes beyond traditional clinical modalities, while also decreasing healthcare costs from extra prenatal testing and high-risk clinic visits.

Also on Dr. Bianco’s research team is Ruth Lathi, MD (Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility), Danielle Panelli, MD (Maternal-Fetal Medicine), Nicola Perlman, MD, MA (Maternal-Fetal Medicine), and Vittorio Sebastiano, PhD (Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology).

Anca Pasca, MD

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Dr. Pasca’s proposal, “Single-Cell Gene Expression Atlas of Hypoxia-Exposed ex vivo Human Fetal Brain” was selected for its potential to fill a significant gap in knowledge by generating a single cell atlas of ex vivo human fetal brain from 16-23 postconceptional weeks and by examining molecular pathways in specific cell types in the normoxia and hypoxia-exposed fetal brain. This project will aid the development and investigation of therapies to protect developing fetal brain during pregnancy and childbirth.   

Hypoxia during pregnancy — due to placental insufficiency, congenital heart disease, etc.) — can cause injuries to both white and gray cerebral matter, which can result in significant long-term neurocognitive impairments. Although some progress has been made in understanding the effects of hypoxia on the developing brain, much remains to be learned about the cellular mechanisms underlying subsequent neurodevelopmental impairments. This research proposal aims to (i) create a single-cell gene expression analysis atlas for the human fetal brain exposed and not exposed to hypoxia, and to (ii) identify differentially expressed genes in neurons, glial cells, and microglia. This research is highly relevant to maternal-fetal medicine as the first study of its kind to identify cell-type specific susceptibilities to hypoxia, and common and divergent molecular pathways of cellular stress. This information will be essential to inform and develop targeted therapeutic interventions.

We are looking forward to sharing updates about these funded projects and hope that you will keep an eye out for the Center’s future funding opportunities.