Tommy’s Manchester Research Centre

The Tommy’s Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre at the University of Manchester is made up of internationally renowned clinicians, scientists and researchers investigating stillbirth and associated pregnancy complications.
A Tommy's researcher sits at a microscope in a lab. She is looking at the camera.

Opened in 2001, our pioneering research centre in Manchester aims to find solutions to pregnancy problems. The centre focuses on:

  • understanding the causes of stillbirth and developing treatments to prevent it
  • finding ways to identify which pregnancies are at risk
  • working with the NHS to improve antenatal care to help reduce stillbirth rates in the UK.

Our researchers deliver world-class advances in pregnancy research to inform better clinical care, policy and practice. By doing this, we can improve outcomes for mothers, their babies and their families.

The centre has grown to include a network of four research clinics. At our clinics, we offer specialist care to women at high risk of pregnancy loss. These women have a chance to take part in clinical studies that improve our understanding of stillbirth, fetal growth restriction, hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes. The clinics allow us to translate research breakthroughs into clinical practice.

Our model is very successful. Between 2017 and 2022, our research centre has reduced the stillbirth rate in Saint Mary's Hospital in Manchester by 28%.  

The placenta and stillbirth

In around half of stillbirths, there is a problem with the placenta – the link between mother and baby.  That’s why many of our research studies focus on the placenta. Failure of the placenta means that not enough oxygen and nutrients get to the growing baby and this leaves them at high risk of death. Fetal growth restriction is one of the leading causes of stillbirth.

  • Characterising pregnancies complicated by chronic histiocytic intervillositis
  • Towards a better understanding of delayed villous maturation - a placental discorder associated with stillbirth
  • Using stem cell-based embryo models to investigate formation of aberrant founder trophoblast populations in placental disease
  • Characterising the impact of diabetes on placental dysfunction associated with stillbirth, and the relative role of O-GIcNAc
  • Star Legacy Grant - can spatial transcriptonomics map the placental dysfunction behind stillbirth?
  • DAHLIA project - Deciphering the Antenatal Signature and patHological pLacental lesions in second trimester miscArriage
  • Factors regulating perivillous fibrin deposition in stillbirth
  • Utilising small molecule NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitiors to treat placental inflammation observed in chronic histiocytic intervillositis, fetal growth restriction and stillbirth
  • Clinical trial of combination vs alternative regimens for CHI
  • Targeting BKCa channels
  • Novel treatments to restore microvascular function in preeclampsia - a potential strategy to reduce the incidence of stillbirth
  • Can treatment with melatonin in early pregnancy reduce FGR and prevent stillbirth in advanced maternal age?
  • Rainbow Clinic and Tommy's National Rainbow Clinic Study
  • Rainbow Clinic RCT (Scotland); stepped wedge cluster trial of Rainbow clinic
  • PASTeL 3 - Pregnancy After Second Trimester Loss: a survey of health care provision at the time of loss and for the pregnancies after second trimester pregnancy loss
  • The CErebro Placental RAtio as indicator for delivery following perception of reduced fetal movements, the UK component of an international cluster randomised clinical trial; the CEPRA study
  • Fetal heart rate monitoring vest
  • Theo's Hope: support for parents after stillbirth
  • Defining inequalities for access and related health outcomes across maternity services - an MFT (Manchester Foundation Trust) cohort study
  • Tackling inequity: connecting with diverse communities to understand and address the issues they face
  • Stillbirth Priority Setting Partnership (PSP)
  • Stillbirth DAISI

Our research projects

Thanks to supporters like you we are able to carry out more than 2 million pounds worth of ground-breaking research every year in 5 centres across the UK, into the causes of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth. Discover our research projects here.

Discover our research projects

Our Manchester clinics