- Overview
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I am interested in exploring whether certain functional placental structures and their location and timing of development are factors in normal pregnancy outcome. Conversely, I am also interested in identifying specific placental development factors that are associated with poor pregnancy outcomes or long term health problems.
- Research
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Current project
Ongoing collaborative work with colleagues at the University of Ottawa is aimed at developing standardized “synoptic” templates for placental pathology reporting.Current Project
Ongoing collaborative work is aimed at defining objective tests or measurements to distinguish constitutionally small from growth restricted fetuses. This work is being done as part of a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional study including the maternal-fetal medicine and pathology divisions at BC Children's and Women's Hospital and The Ottawa Hospital. This study seeks to correlate results of rests that are done in pregnancy including ultrasounds and Doppler as well as novel testing for proteins in the maternal serum (angiogenic growth factors) with placental pathology.
Most Vancouver adults had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 by first wave, infant immune system research confirms
Dr. Pascal Lavoie and his team compared the immune responses of babies to those of COVID-19-negative adults from Metro Vancouver. The antibody reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 in almost all of these adults was up to 100-fold higher compared to the infants at second blood sera collection. The researchers estimate that between 90-99 per cent of adults have positive antibody reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 antigens.
