Associate Professor BIOTECHNOLOGY
CHAIR, SCIENCE EQUITY AND DIVERSITY
Preeclampsia is a very dangerous pregnancy condition that occurs in late stages of pregnancy with symptoms including high blood pressure and organ damage such as kidneys, liver or growth restriction for the baby. There are limited ways to predict, monitor and diagnose this condition before it comes about suddenly and leads to hospital admissions as well as premature delivery of the baby. We discovered new proteins in the blood that can identify women at 20 weeks of gestation (half way point in pregnancy) who are at risk of developing preeclampsia. These new biomarkers can enable better monitoring, identify evolving preeclampsia and lead to early diagnosis with the potential to prevent complications including death.