Preeclampsia and Stem Cell Research: Mana Parast, UC-San Diego

Preeclampsia is a disorder of the placenta that complicates 5-8% of all pregnancies worldwide and is the leading cause of maternal death in the developed world. It’s also the leading cause of fetal growth restriction and there’s no cure except to deliver the baby. Due to this fact preeclampsia is the number one cause of induced preterm delivery in the U.S. Babies that survive often spend months in neonatal intensive care and have many complications and increase risk for heart disease and diabetes later in life. In this video CIRM grantee Dr. Mana Parast, a UCSD perinatal pathologist, discusses her use of the induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technique to screen for drugs that might lead to a cure for preeclampsia.