Research portfolio will include “pregnancy-on-a-chip technology,” AI-powered drug repurposing, and understanding how nutrition and socioeconomic factors shape pregnancy outcomes
March of Dimes, a national leader in maternal and infant health research, announced the launch of the Texas Collaborative Prematurity Research Center (PRC), uniting scientists from The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
The Texas Collaborative represents March of Dimes’ newest PRC focused on making scientific breakthroughs in the fight against preterm birth to improve the health of all moms and babies.
At 10.4%, the U.S. preterm birth rate is one of the highest among developed nations. In Texas, the rate is 11.1%, according to 2023 March of Dimes data.
Catherine Spong, M.D., is Chair and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UT Southwestern. She holds the Paul C. MacDonald Distinguished Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“Adding Texas to our Prematurity Research Center network is a critical milestone in accelerating our mission,” said Cindy Rahman, President and CEO of March of Dimes. “Texas faces one of the highest preterm birth rates in the country, and by bringing together these powerhouse institutions into our larger research network, we're expanding our ability to move scientific discoveries from the lab into clinical practice faster. This collaboration underscores our unwavering commitment to research and our determination to help ensure every mom and baby has the healthiest possible start.”
Led jointly by Catherine Spong, M.D., Chair and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UT Southwestern, and Ramkumar Menon, Ph.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UTMB, the new center will bring together two groundbreaking approaches: “pregnancy-on-a-chip" technology that can be used to validate medicines to combat preterm birth and in-depth studies of pregnancy drawn from one of the nation’s busiest delivery networks. By combining these strengths, the PRC expands March of Dimes’ research power – from testing promising treatments in the lab to understanding real-world drivers of preterm birth. This work positions the organization to make major strides in tackling the maternal and infant health crisis in the U.S.
“It’s hard to overstate the confidence, hope, excitement, and pride we have for the Texas Collaborative,” said Dr. Emre Seli, March of Dimes Chief Scientific Advisor. “From a human pregnancy-mimicking system capable of rapidly testing medications and interventions, to a large cohort of moms and babies whose experiences, data, and insights can unlock new roads to prenatal health, this center is a research and innovation powerhouse. It adds a unique clinical and translational component to our offensive against preterm birth.”
At UT Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Parkland Memorial Hospital, care teams deliver up to 50 babies a day, giving researchers unique insight into both common and uncommon pregnancy outcomes. Under the leadership of Dr. Spong, UTSW’s Principal Investigator, the PRC team at UT Southwestern will collect data and learnings from this large and diverse patient population. Dr. Spong’s focus includes how nutrition and socioeconomic factors shape pregnancy outcomes, while the scale of the cohort also opens the door to vital studies on birth defects, preeclampsia, placental dysfunction, preterm birth, and more.
UTMB’s pregnancy-on-a-chip re-creates key features of pregnancy using real maternal and fetal cells. This powerful tool lets researchers study how pregnancy is maintained, what triggers preterm birth, and how infections or medications can change its course. The result is a pregnancy model that can be used to study preterm birth and medications that may stop preterm birth. Under Dr. Menon, UTMB’s Principal Investigator, the PRC team at UTMB will use this technology to screen FDA-approved drugs identified by artificial intelligence as having the potential to prevent preterm birth. Promising drug candidates could then move to clinical trials involving human subjects.
The Texas Collaborative joins March of Dimes PRCs at Stanford University; the University of Pennsylvania; the University of California, San Francisco; Imperial College London; and at the Ohio Collaborative, the organization’s other umbrella PRC encompassing Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Case Western University, and Vanderbilt University.
The centers work independently and collaboratively to study inflammatory, infectious, hormonal, and genetic mechanisms of preterm birth. Using cutting-edge technologies to study large scale molecular data and electronic medical records, they extend findings into multisite studies to validate and test novel biomarkers and therapeutics.
The PRCs are behind some of the field’s most exciting developments, from a blood test to predict preeclampsia risk, to a device that can identify preterm birth risk based on inflammatory vaginal bacteria, to the first trial of a biotherapeutic to reduce preterm birth risk.
About March of Dimes
March of Dimes leads the fight for the health of all moms and babies. We support research, education, and advocacy and provide programs and services so that every family can get the best possible start. Since 1938, we’ve built a successful legacy to support every pregnant person and every family. Visit marchofdimes.org or nacersano.org for more information.