2018 Bridge Funding Award Recipient

Dr. Maisa Feghali, Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and Magee Womens Research Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, is the recipient of the 2018 Foundation for SMFM Bridge Funding Award sponsored by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology Education Foundation.

Dr. Feghali’s research centers on the heterogeneity of gestational diabetes (GDM) and how differences in disease mechanism impact treatment response and pregnancy outcomes. Her previous work has explored differences in pregnancy outcomes in women with diabetes including timing of delivery, timing of diagnosis, impact of obesity and failure of medical nutritional therapy. She received the competitive Clinical and Translational Science Institute KL2 award at the University of Pittsburgh in 2015.

She has since generated exciting pilot data, laying the groundwork for her Bridge Funding Award project, “Metabolic Analysis for Treatment Choice in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus,” assessing individualized GDM treatment where therapy is aligned with the underlying mechanism of hyperglycemia which will provide the data to advance the planned study, finalize the study design and maximize the competitiveness of a grant application for an R01 award from the NIH.

Her long-term career goal is to cultivate a research career that focuses on the mechanistic understanding of GDM that impacts individualized GDM treatment strategies to improve maternal and fetal outcomes.

Learn more about the Bridge Funding Award here.