Pregnancy and cardiovascular disease

The research in our group focuses on discovery of novel pathogenic mechanisms in cardiovascular disease in pregnancy i.e. pre-eclampsia, and beyond, in the presence or absence of diabetes.

These novel molecular mechanisms involve proteins or miRNAs which can be explored as early disease biomarkers, or targets for novel therapies such as mesenchymal stem cells.

The translational aspects of our research include:

• the development of a novel anti-angiogenic agent (AD-01/AML201) for the treatment of solid cancer
• a patented technology for early prediction of pre-eclampsia (WO2018051125A1) and
• a digital technology for home monitoring of high-risk pregnancies.

In collaboration with Prof. Dayong Jin we have been developing a novel point of care pre-eclampsia test which will allow early detection of this disease in pregnancy and potentially reduce complications to both mothers and their offspring. This research is based on three pillars of investigations including in vitro models, in vivo models and patient samples.