Jane and Fred Bryans were very close friends of Dr. Molly Towell. Jane was instrumental in helping Molly establish the Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation prior to her untimely death in 1989. Jane’s interest and support continued for 36 years from 1988 as a Member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors until her death in October 2024. During these years, she influenced every aspect of the Foundation's activities – research topics, identification of Award recipients, prudent fiscal investment of Molly's legacy, and focusing the Foundation’s activities using her knowledge of Molly's vision. She was, in every way, the “corporate memory “of the Foundation. Jane always had high expectations for those people around her, and even higher expectations of herself. She was exacting, disciplined, determined, and scientifically inquisitive which were important characteristics for which the MTPRF Board benefited.

Jane and Fred were married in 1975. Dr. Fred Bryans was, at the time, the Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of British Columbia, a position which he held for almost 20 years. Fred passed away in 2009 and is remembered as a mentor for hundreds of physicians and an outstanding role model for aspiring Obstetrician/Gynecologists.

Dr. Amanda A. de Oliveira

Dr. Amanda A. de Oliveira is a Postdoctoral Fellow with expertise in cardiovascular physiology. She earned her Pharmacy degree in 2014 from the Lutheran University of Brazil and completed her PhD in 2021 at the Florida Institute of Technology. Since 2022, she has been a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Sandra Davidge’s lab at the University of Alberta’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Supported by the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute and a CIHR Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. de Oliveira investigates how excessive hypercholesterolemia (eHC) in pregnancy affects maternal vascular health—both during pregnancy and long-term. Her research has shown that eHC impairs uterine artery function in pregnant rats via activation of the TLR4 and PGHS1 pathway and causes lasting dysfunction in various maternal blood vessels. These findings are significant, given that about 25% of pregnant women may develop eHC in pregnancy. Dr. de Oliveira's work highlights low-dose aspirin—a treatment already used to reduce preeclampsia risk in high-risk pregnancies—as a promising intervention for improving uteroplacental blood flow by targeting the TLR4/PGHS1 pathway. Her research suggests a potentially overlooked group of pregnant individuals with eHC in pregnancy who could benefit from preventive therapies like aspirin.