Celebrating Borne-funded researcher Emilie Paterson as she completes her PhD
Borne-funded researcher Emilie Paterson has successfully defended her PhD thesis, marking an important milestone both in her career and in our growing understanding of what causes labour to begin.
Emilie’s research has been investigating a question that is fundamental to pregnancy, but which science still cannot fully answer: what triggers labour?
Understanding this process matters enormously. While we know a great deal about the biological changes that take place once labour has begun, we still don’t fully understand what initiates them. Without that knowledge, our ability to develop treatments that can prevent or delay preterm labour remains limited.
Emilie’s work is helping us get closer to an answer.
Investigating what starts labour
Labour is a complex biological process involving changes to the cervix, contractions of the uterus and, eventually, the breaking of the waters. Previous research suggested that a particular type of immune cell, called a macrophage, might be involved in triggering these changes.
Macrophages are found in the lining of the uterus during pregnancy, and Emilie’s research set out to investigate these cells in greater detail and determine the role they might play in initiating labour. Her work identified two distinct populations of macrophages in the uterus, which appear to play different but complementary roles.
One population, known as FOLR2-negative macrophages, produces inflammatory signals. Inflammation is known to promote uterine contractions.
The second population, FOLR2-positive macrophages, produces molecules capable of breaking down collagen – an important structural component of the bag of waters.
Excitingly, when Emilie isolated FOLR2-positive macrophages and cultured them alongside small pieces of the bag of waters, they weakened the tissue. This suggests that these immune cells could contribute to the breaking of the waters before birth.
Both populations of macrophages also increase around the time labour begins and may work together to recruit additional immune cells and drive the biological changes necessary for birth.
What could this mean for preterm birth?
Emilie’s findings suggest that the initiation of labour could involve two complementary processes: inflammatory signalling driven by one macrophage population and tissue remodelling driven by another. Importantly, many of the molecules Emilie identified as being involved in these processes can already be targeted by existing drugs.
This provides researchers with potential targets for further investigation.
More research is needed before these discoveries could translate into treatments, but understanding the mechanisms that initiate labour is an essential step towards finding new ways to prevent or delay labour when it begins too soon.
Emilie is now preparing her research for publication in a scientific journal.
Investing in the scientists behind the research
Emilie’s achievement also represents something that is central to Borne’s approach: nurturing the research talent that will drive the next generation of discoveries in pregnancy and preterm birth.
The project was funded by Borne and Action Medical Research, while Emilie received a scholarship from the Genesis Research Trust, enabling her to use her work on the project towards her PhD.
By investing in talented researchers at pivotal stages in their careers, we are not only funding individual research projects. We are helping to develop scientists with the expertise, experience and ambition to continue answering some of the biggest unresolved questions in pregnancy and childbirth.
We are incredibly proud to have supported Emilie’s work and to celebrate another talented woman in science reaching this important milestone.
Congratulations, Emilie.
