Conjoint A/Prof. Vicki Clifton

Biography

I have a strong background in fetal growth, reproductive endocrinology and placental physiology. My research has examined aspects of placental and myometrial function. I also have strengths in fetal physiology from my postdoctoral work at the University of Toronto, Canada working with leading fetal physiologist, Prof John Challis and with the study of the effect of asthma during pregnancy on placental function and fetal development. My research interests have evolved into an investigation of those factors that program fetal development, in particular activation of the immune system.

I presently conduct my research both independently and as a team member. As an initiative, I identified asthma as a common condition in pregnancy involving inflammation that might provide a valuable model in which to study the effects of an inflammatory process on the outcome of the pregnancy. Our results have been startling, identifying an important sex dependent difference in the fetal growth response to maternal asthma. The results have lead to many prizes for my students, publications in the asthma and obstetric literature and reviews in high impact factor journals such as Endocrine Reviews. Clinically this study has demonstrated that asthmatic women require extra care during their pregnancies and resulted in funding by NHMRC (2007-2010) for a randomized control trial for treatment regimes specifically for pregnant asthmatic women. Scientifically this work has started to create a picture of what sex specific factors are involved in preterm delivery and fetal development in pathological pregnancies. This work has been generously funded by The Asthma Foundation of NSW for the last 10 years and by an NHMRC priming grant and project grant for the last 6 years. I was the sole investigator on these grants.

I was awarded The Arthur Wilson Memorial Fellowship for 2002-2003 from the Royal Australian and New Zealand Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and an NHMRC Career Development Award (2004-2009) for this work. I received the Gabor Than Award in Placentology from the International Federation of Placental Associations in 2003 for my asthma and pregnancy research and presented in a plenary session at the annual meeting in Mainz 2003.

The most exciting aspect of doing the research in asthma and pregnancy is to find that our work has had a clinical impact and has contributed to the formulation of the NIH American Guidelines for the treatment of asthma during pregnancy (J Allergy Clin Immunol 2005; 115:34-46). My asthma and pregnancy research has a wide audience as the work has been presented at both international thoracic societies and international societies associated with reproduction and fetal growth.

I have published consistently every year over the last five years in medium to high impact journals related to my field. These are specialized contributions in internationally recognized journals in both obstetric and respiratory fields. I am consistently invited each year to present my work in plenary sessions and I regularly Chair conference sessions. I am the Treasurer of the Endocrine Society of Australia (2004-present). I am Executive member of the International Federations of Placental Associations since 2001. My leadership skills in research and research training have been recognized with my promotion to Associate Professor and Deputy Director of Mothers and Babies Research Centre.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Newcastle
• Bachelor of Science (Honours), University of Newcastle

Research

Research keywords

• Fetal physiology
• Neonatal cardiovascular adapatation
• Placental physiology
• asthma
• pregnancy

Research expertise

My work is based in a clinical setting with a focus on Human maternal-fetal-neonatal medical research. All of my primary studies involve prospectively following pregnant women and their children and examining mechanism that influence fetal growth and survival

Fields of Research

Centres and Groups

Centre

• PRC - Priority Research Centre for Reproductive Science (RS)

Group

Memberships

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Australian Society of Medical research
• Developmental Origins of Adult Disease
• Executive committee member, Treasurer - Endocrine Society of Australia
• Executive committee member - International Federation of Placental Associations
• NHMRC GRP panel member - Obstetric/gynaecology/paediatric/neonatal GRP
• Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand
• Society of Gynecologic Investigation

Appointments

Fellowship National Health & Medical Research Council (Australia)	01/01/2004 - 01/12/2008
research Development manager P/T 0.2 University of newcastle (Australia)	01/01/2004 - 01/12/2004
Treasurer Endocrine Society of Australia (Australia)	01/09/2004 - 01/12/2007

Awards

Research Award.

2003	Gabor Than Award in Placentology International Federation of Placental Associations (Germany) Awarded for my work in asthma and pregnancy

Invitations

Plenary speaker International federation of placental associations, Germany (Conference Presentation - non published.)

2003

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Administrative

Administrative expertise

I have worked as a research development manager for the Faculty of Health and I am the deputy director of the Mothers and Babies research centre and in the Reproductive Sciences PRC. My admin involves leadership and management roles within these centres.

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Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Reproductive physiology
• endocrinology
• fetal physiology
• neonatal development

Teaching expertise

I am predominantly focussed on postgraduate teaching with Honours, masters and PhD students