Current Postdoctoral Scholars
Sota Iwatani
PhD: Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine in Kobe City, Japan
Mentor: David Stevenson, MD
Research: My research focuses on improving the developmental outcomes of preterm infants, and I am interested in the role of increased bilirubin production in the neonatal period. At Kobe University, I studied hyperbilirubinemia in preterm infants and established a novel method for the measurement of bilirubin, specifically unconjugated unbound bilirubin (free bilirubin). My current work explores the role of heme oxygenase, the rate-limiting enzyme in the production of bilirubin, in a variety of conditions that affect newborns.
Stephanie Leonard
PhD: Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, CA
Mentor: Suzan Carmichael, PhD and Elliott Main, MD
Research: My current research focuses on severe maternal morbidities, which are serious health conditions that occur at delivery or postpartum. I’m studying statewide trends and disparities in these conditions and using a machine-learning approach to evaluate risk factors. This work is part of the CPQCC/CMQCC Research Collaboration.
Krista Mary Smith Sigurdson
PhD: Sociology, University of California, San Francisco in San Francisco, CA
Mentor: Jochen Profit, MD, MPH
Research: I am a qualitative health researcher, currently working on mixed methods projects on racial and other social disparities in the quality of NICU care. To further our understanding of NICU quality, I use open-ended surveys with families and clinicians, qualitative interviews with experts, and ethnographic observations. I am interested in areas of healthcare where maternal and infant health overlap but where questions remain over how to prioritize the needs of families and babies.
My dissertation was a multi-sited ethnography of human milk banking, sharing, and the use of human milk in biomedical innovation. This work introduced me to the use of banked human milk in the NICU and to NICU quality improvement in general. I use approaches from science studies (history, philosophy, sociology and anthropology of science) to inform my work in its focus on contemporary innovations in maternal and infant health care.
Abraham (Avi) Tsur
MD: The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, Israel
Mentors: David Stevenson, MD and Ron Wong, PhD
Research: I am a physician scientist focused on innovative pharmacological and mechanical strategies for the prevention of preterm birth and pregnancy complications related to impaired placental development.
My current research objective is pharmacological reversal of pregnancy complications related to heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) deficiency. Our lab and others have demonstrated that HO-1 deficiency leads to impaired placental development and consequently maternal and fetal pregnancy complications.
Earlier in my career during my obstetrics and gynecology residency in Israel, I invented the OBSPRING, an innovative, dynamic mechanical device for the prevention of spontaneous preterm birth. The OBSPRING is currently under safety investigation in non-pregnant women and planned for clinical trials in London in 2018.
Elizabeth Wall-Wieler
PhD: Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Canada
Mentor: Suzan Carmichael, PhD
Research: In my current research, I am using large claims databases to study pregnancy complications. Specifically, I am examining the social determinants of severe maternal morbidity, complications among women who had stillbirths, and whether there is a relationship between psychotropic medication use and ectopic pregnancy.
Kari Weber
PhD: Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD
Mentor: Gary Shaw, DrPH
Research: My current research focuses on perinatal epidemiology, specifically birth defects. I am currently exploring the co-occurrence of preeclampsia and birth defects and performing a comprehensive analysis of potential risk factors for anophthalmia and microphthalmia. My research interests include maternal lifestyle factors, comorbidities, and environmental exposures.