Program Leader: Professor Roger Smith, The University of Newcastle

Researchers, students and support staff: 106

The HMRI Pregnancy and Reproduction Research Program brings together researchers focussed on understanding the environmental and biological processes that control reproduction and birth.

The Pregnancy and Reproduction Program conducts research focused on two themes:

• Infertility and reproduction
• Pregnancy and premature birth

The researchers are targeting the future health of all Australians by improving the health of pregnant women and providing key information on the determinants of a healthy start to life. The Program conducts research around seven key areas:

• Understanding the mechanisms that influence or lead to premature birth
• Trialling novel therapies to prevent preterm birth
• Predicting adverse outcomes of human birth
• Determining the paternal role in miscarriage and birth defects
• Improving the diagnosis and treatment of male and female infertility
• Developing novel methods of fertility regulation
• Understanding the mechanisms of decline in female fertility with age
• Understanding the processes of egg growth and maturation

Pregnancy and Reproduction Program members are affiliated with the University’s Priority Research Centre for Reproductive Science, and incorporates the Mothers and Babies Research Centre, and the Australian Research Council Centre of Biotechnology and Development.