Project Grant R01HD118111

Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) awarded $600,016 to the University of California, San Diego under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865) on June 1, 2026, for a project titled "Extracellular Vesicles as Mediators of Kidney Damage in Preeclampsia." The research will be conducted through February 28, 2031. This project grant supports investigator-initiated biomedical research designed to advance understanding of pregnancy-related complications and improve maternal health outcomes.

The project will deliver fundamental research on the mechanisms of kidney injury associated with preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder affecting 2-10% of pregnant women and accounting for 16% of maternal deaths in the United States. The research team will utilize a novel 3D microfluidic human proximal tubule kidney-on-a-chip model to investigate how placental and maternal serum extracellular vesicles (EVs) interact with renal cells and cause kidney damage in severe preeclampsia. The study will examine EVs from both early and late-onset preeclampsia cases compared to normal pregnancy, employing both the microfluidic kidney model and mouse model systems to elucidate previously unexplored mechanisms of pregnancy-related acute kidney injury.