To celebrate the 50 Anniversary of the Perinatal Research Society, we have initiated a fundraising effort to support the PRS Educational Fund. Proceeds from this account are used to fund programs designed to support the careers of young investigators and trainees including the Young Investigator Grant Writing Program, the Associate Member Prize, and the PRS-PSANZ Mont Liggins Early Career Award.
Our ultimate goal is to grow the proceeds in our “endowment-style” fund to ensure that PRS can maintain and grow educational programming in the event of reduced external funding.
In order to accomplish this goal, we need to grow the PRS Educational Fund to $300,000*
We sincerely hope that you will help contribute to long term success of the educational mission of the Perinatal Research Society as we enter the next 50 years.
*PRS is a registered 501c3 charitable organization and all contributions are tax deductible. You will receive a confirmation letter from PRS indicating this.
To make a donation, please click below:
Honoring Young Investigator Success Stories
Basic Track
Mary Wallingford, PhD, is a PRS young investigator in the basic track. Dr. Wallingford’s new lab at Tufts Medical Center investigates mechanisms that control placental vascular development and pathophysiology. Her group combines classic embryology and cutting edge vascular biology bioengineering techniques in an innovative, interdisciplinary approach that is very well supported in the expanding Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) [please link to https://www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/Research-Clinical-Trials/Institutes-Centers-Labs/Mother-Infant-Research-Institute/Overview] at Tufts Medical Center
Dr. Wallingford first joined PRS as a 2017 NIH Young Investigator at the 48th Annual PRS Meeting where she participated in the Young Investigator Grant Writing Workshop. Dr. Wallingford participated in the workshop at a truly pivotal time in her career as she was conducting research on her K99, developing her independent research plan, and interviewing with several exceptionally strong research institutions. She has shared that the Young Investigator Grant Writing Workshop “was an extremely unique and valuable experience that I recommend to all postdocs and early career PIs! In fact, I would love to adapt the combined didactic/writing model that the workshop used to other professional development programs that I participate in – opportunities in the developmental biology and vascular biology research communities, for example. ”
To discuss the workshop or her lab’s placenta vascular biology research [Please link to https://www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/Research-Clinical-Trials/Institutes-Centers-Labs/Mother-Infant-Research-Institute/Laboratories/Wallingford-Lab] with Dr. Wallingford, please feel free to contact her at mwallingford@tuftsmedicalcenter.org.
OB Track
Jackie Parchem, MD is an Assistant Professor in the OB/GYN Department at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). She chose to subspecialize in Maternal-Fetal Medicine in part due to a long-standing interest in human development and the biology of pregnancy. Jackie relocated from San Francisco to Houston with her family in 2015. She joined Raghu Kalluri’s lab at the MD Anderson Cancer Center to study the biology of exosomes in pregnancy. Jackie attended the PRS Grant Writing Workshop and Annual Meeting for the first time this year with encouragement from Laura Goetzl. In addition to working on grantsmanship with an experienced group of PRS faculty mentors, she enjoyed meeting with old and new friends, and has since joined PRS as an Associate Member. She was recently awarded a career development grant from the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Jackie has two daughters, ages 4 and 1, with her husband who is a developmental neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine.
Pediatric Track
Tomo Tarui, MD is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Tufts University School of Medicine and Director of the Fetal-Neonatal Neurology Program at the Floating Hospital for Children. Dr. Tarui has a unique clinical expertise and has been actively involved in the prenatal diagnosis and management of fetal neurological disorders as well as long-term follow up after birth.
Dr. Tarui completed his training in Child Neurology Residency and subsequent Fetal Neonatal Neurology Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston MA. After became a faculty at Tufts Medial Center, Dr. Tarui has been pursuing his K23 project “Prenatal diagnosis of brain malformations: Improving assessment of prognosis.” under the mentorship of Drs. Diana Bianchi, Ellen Grant and Donna Slonim. His research has been focused on development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for fetal and neonatal neurological disorders. In his K project, Dr. Tarui has been developing unique scientific skills in fetal and neonatal neuroimaging research (quantitative analysis of fetal and neonatal MRIs) and genomic research (transcriptomics of fetal neonatal neurological disorders). Dr. Tarui had a great opportunity to participate in Perinatal Research Society, NIH Abbott Grant Writing Workshop/Young Investigator Program in September 2017. Dr. Tarui had privileged opportunity to learn great wisdom of grant writing, oral presentation and scientific figure preparation as well as seeking advice from the world experts in perinatal research. Using the training he obtained from the Workshop, Dr. Tarui was able to publish two peer-reviewed articles, prepare two manuscripts in work, submit three grant proposals, present an oral presentation at the World Congress of International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (Singapore), and two posters at Pediatric Academic Society (Toronto) and International Symposium on Fetal Brain (Washington DC). Currently, Dr. Tarui is preparing for his first R01 proposal to bring up his research to the next translational stage.
