Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal death in low-income areas, and occurs in 10% of all births with 1% of cases resulting in death. Women in developed countries have access to effective PPH treatments, but these treatments are expensive and require sophisticated healthcare infrastructure, making these solutions inaccessible in remote and rural settings. To decrease global mortality and healthcare burden due to PPH, affordable treatments that can be used by birth attendants and community healthcare workers are needed. Topical agents which stop bleeding could be used to treat PPH in home and hospital settings, and to stabilize a patient to receive further treatments, such as surgery. However, applying agents into the uterus is difficult due to the outward flow of blood and because blood clots are naturally broken down by the body constantly, even during bleeding. Recently, I invented and published a foaming agent which can transport therapeutics into wounds against blood flow. This agent rapidly stopped bleeding when combined with a molecule that promotes blood clotting. To develop a treatment suitable for managing PPH in low-resource settings, I intend to adapt this agent to deliver a molecule which prevents the breakdown of blood clots. To do this, we will also investigate how breakdown of blood clots contributes to PPH using an animal model of PPH. There is currently no animal model of PPH which researchers can use to develop new PPH treatments, so we are collaborating with an obstetrician who has previously developed multiple obstetric animal models. Finally, we will test our agent's ability to reduce bleeding in this animal model of PPH and we will check for any unexpected side-effects. Through the proposed research, we will develop a new agent which can prevent clot breakdown during PPH to potentially save thousands of lives per year worldwide.