Dr Francesca Gaccioli

Research interests

My current research interests are:
- Human placental development and function
- Identification of novel biomarkers for prediction of adverse pregnancy outcomes

Research summary

My research aims to understand how altered placental development and function contribute to pregnancy complications, such as fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia and stillbirth. My work is based on two very large cohorts of pregnant women: the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction (POP) study (link: https://www.obgyn.cam.ac.uk/research/pops-2/), including approximately 4,000 nulliparous women, and the POP study 2, which is currently ongoing and aims at recruiting a similar number of patients (link: https://www.obgyn.cam.ac.uk/research/pops-2/pops2/).

Using this large biobank of samples, I undertake multi-omics approaches to study both placental and maternal blood samples in order to characterize the possible underlying causes of placental insufficiency observed in placentally-related complications of pregnancy and to find clinically useful biomarkers for these conditions. One of the main goals of the POP studies is to identify screening tests which could inform the management of these patients.

Funding: NIHR, Wellcome Trust, MRC