This project is funded by Wellcome and led by Prof Andrew Prendergast who is the Director of the Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research in Zimbabwe and has established clinical trials to improve healthy birth and growth.

Our goal is to better understand the pathogenesis of preterm birth which affects 13.4 million babies each year, making it the leading cause of death amongst children under five years old. The project involves a transdisciplinary team of UK-Zimbabwe academics working towards understanding the complex interactions of how extreme heat affects pregnancy and preterm birth. Zimbabwe has one of the highest global preterm birth rates (32/1000 live births). Currently, there is a paucity of clinical interventions to prevent preterm birth in rural Zimbabwe. 

The team has developed a human 3D microengineered model representing the maternal-fetal interface to investigate the effects of heat stress on inflammatory and mechano-immune mechanisms.

Clinical biomarkers identified in pregnant women who live in Zimbabwe will be investigated in vitro to discover whether extreme heat propagates and amplifies inflammation, impacting the integrity of the fetal membranes, leading to their rupture and preterm birth.