Nigerian Maternal Atlas to Improve Birth Outcomes

Nigeria is among the top countries with the highest rate of maternal mortality worldwide at 19 percent, despite having just 2 percent of the global population. The team will address this disparity by developing a reference reproductive and perinatal developmental cell map of African origin, and computational tools to study early- and long- term effects during normal and perturbed pregnancy from environmental factors. The inclusion of donors from several ethnic groups within the state of Kaduna in Nigeria will inform scientific knowledge of biological processes in the context of reproductive health.

The team aims to identify and characterize major cell types and their interactions representing maternal blood and placenta development and benchmark the results with the Human Cell Atlas. This project will provide support for innovative methods and data generation that have the potential to help reduce health disparities in the field of reproductive health and improve birth outcomes.