Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted.

The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit cc.nih.gov.

Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at OPM.gov.

Scientists’ New ‘Human Placenta Project’ Aims to Improve Health of Moms and Their Children

Human Placenta Project logoThe placenta sustains us at the earliest phase of our development and shapes the adults we’ll eventually become. And yet it’s the least understood, and least studied, of all human organs. At the National Institutes of Health, we’re planning a new initiative to learn more about the placenta, in hopes of better health for mothers and their children—not just in pregnancy, but long after.

A chief goal of this initiative is to develop tools for studying the placenta in real time, so we can learn how a placenta develops normally. With that knowledge, we could do a better job of monitoring pregnancies and detecting placental problems earlier. Ultimately, we may be able to identify markers that predict many adverse pregnancy outcomes and take steps to prevent them.

Read the rest of the update in my Huffington Post Blog: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/scientists-new-human-plac_b_6265174External Web Site Policy.

 

Originally posted: December 5, 2014

top of page BACK TO TOP