Digital Placenta On-a-chip: Malta is partnering in EU-funded research to help pregnant women minimise risks to the foetus from potentially harmful chemical and medicinal products.
The Malta Innovation Hub at the Malta Life Sciences Park is this week hosting the other partners of the LIFESAVER Horizon funded project.
The physical and emotional health of pregnant mothers has a profound impact on the health of their unborn child. As part of the LIFESAVER Project, we believe that mental health matters when nurturing healthy fetal development for both the mother and her baby. Studies have found that the well-being of a mother can have a lasting effect on the health of her child, both during pregnancy and after birth.
The environmental crisis has become a major threat to the health of expectant mothers and their unborn children, with serious implications for maternal care and neonatal fatalities. In the face of mounting global concerns, it is important to understand how this crisis affects pregnant women and their families, and what measures can be taken to protect their health and safety.
Preterm births and associated problems are of significant concern for Europe and is the leading cause of death in children younger than 5 years worldwide. Every year, hundreds of thousands of babies are born before the 37th week of pregnancy, putting them at risk of numerous short and long-term health problems.
The Lifesaver Project is innovative and unique in many ways. Not only does it seek to lead the vanguard in pregnant women health research, but it also aims to do this excluding animal testing. If Lifesaver’s bio-digital twin system that replicates the behaviour of the human placenta for drugs and chemicals transmission proves as effective as we believe it will, could this spell the end for animal testing in the future?
The mind can barely wrap itself around the concept of a printer producing faithful, working versions of our body parts or organs. Yet, this technology continues to develop, opening up more and more health avenues to us, assisted by the work of researchers like Dr Andrew Daly and Professor Abhay Pandit of the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG).
