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Lina Bergman

Dr. Lina Bergman is an obstetrician-gynaecologist who completed her PhD in 2017 with the title “Cerebral biomarkers in women with preeclampsia” at Uppsala University. She currently holds a 50% postdoctoral position with research conducted at Uppsala University, Gothenburg University and Stellenbosch University. Her main research areas are neurological complications in preeclampsia, early prediction of preeclampsia and prediction of adverse outcome in preeclampsia on the short- and long-term. She is the chair of the Swedish group for guidelines and research in preeclampsia and is currently preparing Swedish guidelines for management of preeclampsia.

IMPACT – Study for Improving Maternal, Pregnancy and Child ouTcomes
Together with a Swedish steering committee, Dr. Bergman is setting up a national cohort study (8 centers) with serum samples in the first trimester of pregnancy to develop a prediction model for preeclampsia in a Swedish setting with an estimated sample size of 30 000 women. The study has started to recruit in October 2018.

Cathy Cluver
Tygerberg Hospital, Stellenbosch University
Cape Town, South Africa

Dr. Cathy Cluver is an obstetrician-gynaecologist and maternal-fetal medicine subspecialist who is completing her PhD on the management and treatment of preterm preeclampsia. She is based at Tygerberg Hospital and Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa, where she leads the Preeclampsia Research Unit. The Preeclampsia Research Unit has two main arms—Therapeutic trials for novel treatments for preterm preeclampsia and the PReeclampsia Obstetric adVerse Events (PROVE) Biobank.

PROVE (Preeclampsia Obstetric Adverse Events) Biobank
Together with Dr. Berman, Dr. Cluver runs and manages the PROVE biobank with the aim to gain knowledge regarding organ failure in preeclampsia and primarily cerebral and cardiovascular complications. This will be achieved through the establishment of a bio- and databank at Tygerberg Hospital, Stellenbosch University, where longitudinal blood samples, placenta samples, cerebrospinal fluid and cord blood are collected together with a databank consisting of predictors and outcomes in agreement with the COLLECT database and in addition investigations such as MRI brain, estimation of cerebral blood flow through Doppler measurements, MRI heart and echocardiography for women with preeclampsia and organ complications and healthy pregnant controls. The results of the project will hopefully yield a possibility to customize treatment to specific organ involvement, reach new discoveries regarding future drug targets and facilitate surveillance and treatment of women at high risk of mortality and morbidity due to preeclampsia.

Therapeutic trials for novel treatments for preterm preeclampsia:
Together with international researchers, including Professors Sue Walker and Stephen Tong, Dr. Cluver has recently completed her first double blind randomised control trial of 40mg esomeprazole to treat preterm preeclampsia: the Preeclampsia Intervention with Esomeprazole (PIE) trial. 120 women with preterm preeclampsia were recruited in 14 months, plasma and placental samples were collected, analysed and have been stored for further research and detailed pharmacokinetic studies were performed. The team is currently recruiting for a second double blind randomised control trial where 3gm of daily metformin versus placebo is being assessed as a therapeutic for preterm preeclampsia (PI2 trial).

GO-PROVE – Gothenburg Preeclampsia Obstetric Adverse Events
Drs. Bergman and Cluver, together with a team of researchers from Gothenburg University including midwifes, anesthesiologist, radiologists and obstetricians, are setting up a biobank and database with the same predictors and some of the outcomes from PROVE. The project aims to discover new objective biomarkers as predictors for organ impairment in a Swedish setting on short- and long-term and to validate findings from PROVE.

Steven Korzeniewski
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI, USA

Dr. Korzeniewski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wayne State University located in Detroit, Michigan. With a broad multidisciplinary research background, his specific training and expertise is in epidemiology. His research seeks to identify early antecedents of placental dysfunction and related clinical disorders, and to determine the mechanistic pathways that link them to damage to offspring brain structure or functioning. Dr. Korzeniewski came to this line of work after spending several years as an aide for disabled children because he wanted to figure out what causes such suffering and how to prevent it.

Zaleha Abdullah Mahdy
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Dr. Mahdy graduated from the National University of Malaysia (UKM) in 1989. Between 1993 and 1998, she obtained her membership of the RCOG (1995), Masters in Ob-Gyn from UKM (1996) and Doctor in Medicine (MD) from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom (1998). Her doctoral research thesis focused on isolation, culture and calcium signaling characteristics of human hand vein endothelial cells in normal pregnancy and preeclampsia, sponsored by a grant from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, United Kingdom. Preeclampsia and disorders of the placenta are her main areas of interest, along with maternal fetal medicine in general, and nutrition in pregnancy. Her publications include a randomized controlled trial on the role of palm oil vitamin E in prevention of preeclampsia.

In 2012, she completed a three-year term as Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the UKM medical faculty. After a brief placement as Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology between 2015 and 2016, she was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and first female Director of a teaching hospital in Malaysia. Following restructuring of the governance, she is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine besides continuing to function as Professor and Senior Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. She is a council member of the Malaysian Medical Council. She has 86 published articles in local and international journals, several books and chapters in books, as well as more than 100 abstracts and proceedings. She has been involved in writing the Malaysian Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) on Management of Hypertension from the Second Edition until the most recent Fifth Edition 2018 for the Ministry of Health Malaysia.

2020
Virtual Meeting on September 9-10, 2020
WORKSHOP: Using Artifificial Intelligence (AI) and Innovative Strategies to Study Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes

2019
Oriel College, Oxford, England
WORKSHOP: Subtypes of Preeclampsia

2018
Oriel College, Oxford, England
WORKSHOP: Short and Long-term Outcomes in Offspring Exposed to Maternal Preeclampsia 

2017
Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, West Drayton, England
WORKSHOP: Periconceptional and Pregnancy Nutrition: Role in Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes

2016
Oriel College, Oxford, England
WORKSHOP: Prepregnancy and Early Pregnancy Antecedents of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes
PROCEEDINGS: Global Pregnancy Collaboration symposium: Prepregnancy and very early pregnancy antecedents of adverse pregnancy outcomes: Overview and recommendations

2015
Oriel College, Oxford, England
WORKSHOP: Placental Health

PROCEEDINGS: Global Pregnancy Collaboration symposium on placental health: Summary and recommendations

2014
Oriel College, Oxford, England
WORKSHOP: Big Science