Dr Thomas Rawlings

The loss of a wanted pregnancy is devasting, and each miscarriage increases the chances of experiencing more losses, regardless of age. Currently, there are no effective treatments to prevent miscarriage or its impact on future pregnancies. Our research has uncovered that an imbalance in certain cell types within the womb lining raises the risk of repeated miscarriages. In a breakthrough, I developed a new 3D cell culture model to mimic this cellular imbalance. My findings revealed that having this imbalance makes the womb lining vulnerable to breakdown during early pregnancy. This cellular imbalance likely stems from excessive stress in rapidly multiplying cells in the womb lining as it regrows following menstruation. My project has two main aims: first, to study the characteristics of the womb lining during the growth phase of the menstrual cycle, before ovulation, in patients facing ongoing fertility struggles, and second, to investigate how an imbalanced womb lining goes onto impact embryo implantation and the beginning of placental development. Long term, by pinpointing these early growth phase womb lining cell defects and how they're controlled, I hope to identify drugs that can target them before ovulation and pregnancy, to remove the risk of harming the implanting embryo. This could lead to major breakthroughs in developing safer and more effective treatments for miscarriage prevention.