National Development Initiatives Institute

Transcription

[MUSIC IN] [MUSIC OUT] DR. DIANA BIANCHI: The placenta is really the Rodney Dangerfield of organs. It just doesn't get respect. It gets thrown out at the end of the pregnancy. I mean, when you think about it, what other organ does its job effectively, grows when it's supposed to grow, provides the nutrients it's supposed to provide, and yet it knows when its job is over? [MUSIC IN] [MUSIC OUT] DR. ALAN GUTTMACHER: The Human Placenta Project is a coordinated effort to really work in a collaborative way to better understand the placenta, its structure, its function, its development over the pregnancy, in a way that will really advance both our fundamental understanding of the placenta and how it functions, but also allow us to apply that knowledge in a way that improves health. DR. YOEL SADOVSKY: The placenta serves as the lung, the kidneys, the liver, the endocrine system–produces hormones–and is essential for immune defense of the baby. And this all happens at the most critical time of embryonic development. DR. GRAHAM BURTON: I understand people are more concerned about the baby than the placenta. But for us researchers, the placenta is of key importance; it's the platform for life. I think most people would be surprised to realize the lasting impact that the placenta has on an individual's health. DR. S. ANANTH KARUMANCHI: The placenta provides so much information, not just for pregnancy, but also for beyond pregnancy, for mom's health as well as for the infant's health. DR. CATHY SPONG: I'm excited about the Human Placenta Project because we're finally focusing attention to the placenta. As a clinician, I see many times where pregnancy outcomes go poorly, and the placenta hasn't formed well, and yet I don't have a lot of tools to help understand why that happened. And certainly I have limited ability to really monitor the development of that placenta, or to optimize placental outcomes so I can optimize pregnancy outcome. By focusing our attention on the placenta and getting those tools, we'll be able to improve pregnancy outcome, improve the health of that child, hopefully improve the health of the world. DR. GUTTMACHER: We're hoping the Human Placenta Project will involve a large cohort of researchers, both researchers who've spent already years if not decades thinking about the placenta, but also some researchers who never thought about the placenta before but might have real contributions to make if they only began to apply their kinds of tools and approaches to thinking about the placenta. DR. ELIZABETH HILLMAN: As a physicist and an engineer, I like to look at biological systems as machines and try to sort of deconstruct them and understand exactly how they work. On a more personal note, I'm a mom–I have two little boys. And having gone through labor and delivery, having built two placentas myself in the last four years, I've just become really fascinated with that whole process. DR. PETER BASSER: Having three children of my own, I know the process. And learning more about it scientifically only makes me appreciate it more: the mystery of it, the miracle of it, and the science of it. DR. JOE LEIGH SIMPSON: This research effort is pivotal if we're going to have the most healthy babies that we can have. DR. GUTTMACHER: My hope for the Human Placenta Project, is that years from now, we've enabled knowledge of the placenta in a way that truly changes the way we think about pregnancy and truly changes the way we're able to intervene in pregnancy, to make a difference in terms of the health both the mother and the fetus–not just during pregnancy, but during the rest of their lives. [MUSIC IN] [MUSIC OUT]