Mary Dawn Koenig
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Iron deficiency anemia, a shortage of healthy red blood cells caused by too little iron, is a serious risk during pregnancy. It is linked to maternal and infant deaths and to problems with a baby's brain development.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
Physiology
- Topics
iron deficiency anemia
pregnancy
prenatal care
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2030
What they work on
- Test whether taking the probiotic Lactiplantibacillus plantarum 299v (LP299V®) with an iron prenatal supplement keeps hemoglobin and iron levels stable and lowers anemia rates, in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of 200 at-risk pregnant participants.
- Determine whether infants born to participants given LP299V® have better cord blood iron markers and better cord and heel-stick hemoglobin than infants in the placebo group.
- Explore whether prenatal LP299V® affects newborn neurodevelopment, measured with auditory brainstem response testing, which records the brain's electrical response to sounds.
- Examine how LP299V® influences iron metabolism by studying gut microbes, the placenta and the body's iron-regulating pathways in trial participants.
More about the research
Most pregnant people are prescribed prenatal vitamins with iron, yet up to 18% still develop anemia. Simple, low-cost ways to help the body absorb more iron could protect both parent and child.
Why it matters
Iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy can harm mothers and may cause lasting effects on a child's brain development. If LP299V® proves effective, it could become a safe, inexpensive and scalable addition to prenatal care. It may improve iron status for pregnant people at risk of anemia and for their newborns, both in the U.S. and worldwide.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
James Collins
University of Florida, FL·Physiology
Test whether high blood iron in Th3/+ mouse mothers, a β-thalassemia model, loads fetuses with iron and causes oxidative stress that damages developing tissues and leads to disease after birth.
Melanie Fields
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Medicine & Clinical Research
Compare cerebral metabolic stress and oxygen metabolism, measured by brain MRI, between females aged 12–21 with iron deficiency anemia and matched non-anemic females.
Shannon Gillespie
Ohio State University, OH·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether a prenatal immunomonitoring algorithm, based on immune function in early-pregnancy blood samples, predicts spontaneous preterm birth in a large, diverse cohort of singleton pregnancies.
The school
University of Illinois Chicago: 42 labs on PI Pages, $532M a year on research, 359 research doctorates a year.
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