Dr. Leonard Zon, winner of the 2026 March of Dimes Richard B. Johnston, Jr., MD Prize, Director of the Stem Cell Research Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Grousbeck Professor of Pediatric Medicine at Harvard Medical School, discusses his career using the 1.5-inch zebrafish to study human disease.

Dr. Tomiko Oskotsky, who co-directs The March of Dimes Database for Preterm Birth Research, discusses the database’s recent wins: being chosen for a National Science Foundation AI program and launching an AI assistant called ChatPTB, or ChatPreTermBirth.

Dr. Rupsa Boelig, a 2025 March of Dimes Discovery Research Grant winner and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University, discusses her new study on the metabolism of aspirin in pregnant women with diabetes or a higher BMI. She hopes the study findings will shed light on whether these women may benefit from a higher aspirin dose to help prevent preeclampsia and/or preterm birth.

Dr. Ramkumar Menon, professor and director of the division of basic and translational research in obstetrics and gynecology at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and one of two principal investigators at the new March of Dimes Texas Collaborative Prematurity Research Center, discusses his career and focus at the PRC: pregnancy-on-a-chip technology that simulates human pregnancy and will be used to validate drugs that may reverse preterm birth.

Dr. Catherine Spong, professor and chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and one of two principal investigators at the new March of Dimes Texas Collaborative Prematurity Research Center, discusses her career, research, and focus at the PRC: examining how nutrition, socioeconomic factors, the placenta, and bacterial vaginosis affect pregnancy outcomes.

Dr. Lynne Sykes, co-director of the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Imperial College London, discusses her new paper detailing links between a woman’s blood type and her risk of spontaneous preterm birth depending on her gynecological and obstetrical history.

Dr. Wendy Kuohung, a 2025 March of Dimes Discovery Research Grant winner, discusses her original research to find novel therapeutics to treat preeclampsia associated with APOL1 gene variants.

March of Dimes Research Center for Advancing Maternal Health Equity investigator Dr. Sindhu Srinivas and doula Alexia Doumbouya discuss leading a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on whether doula integration throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum can decrease maternal depression and anxiety.