The Maternal Microbiome

Meet some of the people featured in the August 2021 issue of The Scientist.

Hearing others’ perspectives on infertility and pregnancy has me reconsidering my own reproductive journey.

Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse.

For too long, a physiological inability to conceive or carry a child through to birth has been seen as a minor medical issue.

By measuring various pollutants in the immediate vicinity of pregnant women and tracking brain development of their children, researchers in Barcelona aim to untangle any influence the former has on the latter.

High altitude is a natural laboratory for investigating pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia and gestational hypertension, that restrict a fetus’s oxygen supply.

Researchers identify a protein that promotes changes in adipose tissue in vitro and in pregnant mice and may help protect against gestational diabetes in humans.

Obese mice that exercised while pregnant gave birth to pups that grew up free of the metabolic issues present in the adult young of sedentary obese mothers—possibly by staving off epigenetic changes to a key metabolic gene.

Genes associated with preterm birth and protecting the fetus from the mother’s immune system appear to be regulated by HAND2.

In her current work, the University of Southern California psychologist is examining how the transition to fatherhood affects men’s brains.

The organizers behind a Mothers in Science conference say that it’s time academia provide more support to researchers who are pregnant or looking after children.

CRISPR and other innovations are likely to open up a wealth of new options for how people have children.

Soranus of Ephesus’s manual shaped the way midwifery was practiced for more than a millennium.

Researchers propose a mechanism by which a protein produced in the placenta may trigger blood vessel growth and enlarge fat cells.

Scientists are banking various samples from recipients of donated uteruses to learn all they can about the biology of the organ, and about transplantation more generally.

Work in rodents shows that the bacteria living in a mother’s gut can produce immunomodulatory metabolites and influence the production of maternal antibodies—both of which can affect her offspring’s development.