Bird earns Meriter Foundation grant

Congratulations to Ian Bird, PhD, of the UW Ob-Gyn Division of Reproductive Sciences! Bird recently earned a Meriter Foundation grant for the project “Cytokine induced antigen presentation as a source of endothelial dysfunction in pregnancy”.

This proposal is submitted to establish if the endothelial dysfunction already known to underlie hypertension in preeclampsia is in fact caused by a change in the fundamental nature of the endothelial cells, taking them from a vasodilatory state to an antigen presenting state. This pilot program involves in vitro modeling of those events and the development of a new full spectrum flow cytometry assay.

This project may allow researchers to apply findings to human control and preeclampsia subjects, which may lead first to novel diagnostic methods, and ultimately to new therapeutic strategies to predict and treat preeclampsia.

Incredible work, Dr. Bird!