Principal Investigator Linda Griffith
Co-investigators Alexander Slocum , Frank Gertler , John Guttag , Anette Hosoi , Jongyoon Han , Katharina Ribbeck , W David Lee , Paul Blainey , Yoel Fink , Moungi Bawendi , Paula Hammond , M Kaashoek , Douglas Lauffenburger , Barbara Imperiali
Ascending infection from the colonized vagina to the normally sterile intrauterine cavity is a well-documented cause of pre-term birth. The dense and protective mucus plug in the cervical canal is the primary barrier to microbial ascension. We developed a facile means to measure mucus "spinnbarkeit", the complex non-Newtonian rheological properties of mucus and used this approach to show a robust relationship between spinnbarkeit and pre-term birth. Ongoing studies focus on clinical translation of these observations into prospective studies for prediction of preterm birth risk, and development of mucus-modulating therapies for a range of reproductive disorders.