Morning Session

Moderator: 
Rachel Tribe, PhD 
King's College London

8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Functional and Biomarker Contributions of Extracellular Vesicles in Parturition
Ram Menon, PhD
Associate Professor
The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA

9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

BREAK

10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Functional Studies of Pregnancy Specific Beta-1 Glycoproteins and Identification of Their Ligands
Gabriella Dveksler, PhD
Professor
Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD, USA

10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Harnessing the Function of B Lymphocytes to Prevent Preterm Labor
Kang Chen, PhD
Associate Professor
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Metalloprotease and Extracellular Matrix Modulation of Myometrial Activation and Parturition
Suneel S. Apte, MBBS, DPhil
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Lerner Research Institute Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Drug Discovery Strategy to Identify Novel Regulators of Uterine Contraction
Jennifer Herington, PhD
Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

LUNCH

Afternoon Session

Moderators:
Nardhy Gomez-Lopez, PhD
Wayne State University

Rachel Tribe, PhD
King’s College London

1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Setting the Pace for Labour: How the 3-Dimensional Structure of the Uterus Combines with Bio-Electrical Signalling to Coordinate Delivery of the Fetus
Andrew Blanks, BSc, PhD
Associate Professor
Warwick Medical School, Coventry, United Kingdom

2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

INSIGHT Study: The Cervico-Vaginal Environment and Prediction of Spontaneous Preterm Birth
Natasha Hezelgrave, MBBS
NIHR Clinical Fellow
King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Cervical Epithelial Damage and Preterm Birth
Ioannis Pavlidis, MD, MSc, PhD
Doctoral Researcher
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

BREAK

Moderator:
Rachel Tribe, PhD
King’s College London

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

The Vaginal Virome and Preterm Birth
Kristine Wylie, PhD
Assistant Professor
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA