The Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation (MTPRF) was established in 1988 as a legacy of the estate of Dr. Molly Towell. Dr. Towell was a pioneering clinician-scientist in the field of maternal-fetal medicine and had a particular interest in the influence of maternal nutrition on infant outcomes. For more about Dr. Towell, see About Molly Towell. Dr. Towell instructed that the major objectives of the Foundation were:

• To fund graduate and undergraduate fellowships for individuals in the field of fetal and neonatal medicine

• To provide start-up operating funds to assist in research and education in the field of fetal and neonatal medicine

The overall goal of the MTPRF is to encourage perinatal research in Canada. As per Dr. Towell’s direction, the Foundation will support original and innovative research, which she defined as the pursuit of new information derived from basic or clinical research. High priority is given to projects that concern fetal growth or metabolism, but any studies that involve original research in fetal or neonatal medicine will be considered. Purely epidemiological research or clinical trials, however, will not be considered.

Pierre-Emmanuel Girault-Sotias

About 8% of babies are born prematurely in Canada. Babies born at an extreme lower gestational age (<27 weeks of gestation) face the worse health consequence from prematurity, exacerbated by a high need for intensive care interventions during the neonatal period, including supplemental oxygen. Indeed, while high oxygen is often needed in extreme preterm babies, as a life saving measure, it can also damage organs such as the lungs, heart and brain. Dr. Girault-Sotias began his post-doctoral work in 2022 at CHU Sainte-Justine / University of Montreal, studying how these damages occur and how they could be potentially prevented, specifically in the heart. To study this, he uses an experimental model of rats exposed to high oxygen during the neonatal period. In the context of these studies, he observed that the (coronary) arteries feeding the heart muscle were atrophied in rates exposed to high oxygen. This could potentially increase susceptibility to heart attacks later on in life, when these babies become mature adults. In follow-up studies, Dr. Girault-Sotias proposes detailed investigations of how high oxygen affects the cardiac vasculature and cardiac muscle structure, using sophisticated microscopy imaging techniques, and determine how this could impact cardiac function beyond the neonatal period. Research from the same group has shown that former preemies have silent alterations in their heart once they reach adulthood. This research could help better predict the impact of those changes on long-term cardiovascular risks.

Jing Zheng

Between 75 and 200 trillion bacteria naturally live in and on our body, having profound effects on our health. Accumulating scientific evidence suggests that the microbiome of mothers during pregnancy can impact the health of their developing fetus, with potential major long-term neurodevelopmental consequences. Dr. Jing Zheng is a postdoctoral scholar at University of Calgary studying how maternal environments (e.g., chemical pollutants, nutrients, microbiome, et al.) impact developing brains and is mentored by Dr. Deborah Kurrasch, an expert in neurodevelopmental programming. Jing is near completing his postdoctoral training, aspiring to become an independent researcher to identify the mechanistic evidence underlying neurodevelopmental disorders by studying how maternal cues can change programs governing development of the fetal brain during gestation. In the current research, Dr. Zheng provides preliminary data showing that eliminating the maternal microbiome by raising mice in a sterile environment can perturb neurons in a specific area of the brain that controls circadian rhythm and sleep. What Dr. Zheng now proposes to do is to study this more deeply by investigating the mechanistic program responsible for these changes, examine how these changes may affect circadian rhythms and sleep, and identify the metabolites produced by the mother’s microbiome during pregnancy that could be responsible for these changes. This study aims to provide mechanistic evidence in understanding how maternal microbiome shape fetal brains and circadian rhythm later in life, and to identify potential therapeutic options for neurodiverse population with sleeping issues.