Christopher Fitzpatrick
Postgraduate Research Student
Tel: +44 (0)161 701 6960
Email: christopher.fitzpatrick@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre
School of Biomedicine
St Mary's Hopsitial (5th Floor)
Oxford Road
M13 9WL
Research
Alongside the obesity epidemic, gestational Diabetes (GDM) is becoming increasingly common because of its likelihood to occur in pregnant mothers with a BMI of over 30. Mothers with GDM are more likely to have macrosomic babies; in other words, babies who are large for gestational age and lie over the 90th percentile in the distribution of birth weights. This condition not only causes complications at birth, but also leaves a child more susceptible to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. The cyclical environmental inheritance of diabetes from mother to child is obviously a great concern to healthcare organisations.
microRNAs (miRNAs) are a recent discovery in gene expression and are believed to prevent mRNA transcripts from being translated by the ribosomal complex. Several miRNAs have been associated with insulin sensitivity, diabetes and pre-ecalmpsia, but most importantly seem to be involved in the pathological growth and function of the macrosomic placenta. My research is based around the characterisation of these miRNAs, and expoliting their properties to pharmacologically intervene with macrosomic placental growth in GDM mothers.
Supervisors
Dr Karen Forbes
Dr Melissa Westwood
Prof John Aplin