Donna Slater

Spontaneous preterm labour is a significant health issue. Babies born too early may face problems with their breathing, hearing, vision and development. Currently, there are no proven strategies for preventing or treating preterm labour, with present medications only moderately effective and associated with side effects. 

Research areas in the lab aim to 

(i) determine underlying molecular mechanisms controlling parturition (labour and delivery) to better understand the underlying mechanisms that lead to complications such as preterm labour. Gaining a better understanding of the labour process, will lead to the identification of more effective and safer clinical interventions for the treatment of preterm labour. 

(ii) identify predictive biomarkers to determine risk of preterm labour before it occurs, providing time for prevention and interventions 

 Tools used include molecular, pharmacology, cell and tissue-based assays, plus bioinformatics for RNAseq analyses and machine learning for the prediction of preterm birth studies.