California start-up bags US$4.6m grant from the Gates Foundation to study preeclampsia

California pregnancy care platform Mirvie has received a US$4.6m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study preeclampsia in Sub-Saharn Africa.

The funding, Mirvie says, will help launch study sites in Cameroon, Ghana and Zambia to understand preeclampsia among pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries using the company’s RNA platform via a blood test.

The platform combines analysis of tens of thousands of RNA messages from the baby, the placenta and the mum, with machine learning, detecting up to 75 per cent of those who will go on to develop preeclampsia.

Maneesh Jain, co-founder and CEO of Mirvie, said: “We’re thrilled to have the support of the foundation as Mirvie works to predict and prevent pregnancy complications, allowing providers and patients to intervene before they become a crisis.

“We’re excited to work with leading maternal-foetal health researchers, Drs Alan Tita and Methodius Tuuli, to bring pregnancy health to the 21st century.”

He added: “The last year has brought meaningful forward progress for Mirvie, including receiving FDA Breakthrough Device Designation, one of only four recipients ever in the obstetrics space.

“We’re looking forward to building on the company’s strong momentum with this latest milestone.”

Preeclampsia disproportionately impacts mothers and infants in developing countries, affecting 10 million women globally, and being a leading cause of maternal death in this population.

Mirvie aims to fill this need by providing women, expecting parents and their doctors with an early detection window to reveal the “underlying biology” of each pregnancy and intervene before unexpected pregnancy complications happen.

Dr Tita, Mary Heersink Endowed chair of global health, director of the Mary Heersink Institute of Global Health, said: “Diversity and inclusion in maternal health research, especially at a global scale, is critical if we want to create meaningful progress and interventions to curb maternal mortality.

“We look forward to working with Mirvie on this research to potentially fill an unmet need and create healthier futures for women and their babies.”

Dr Tuuli, Chace-Joukowsky professor and chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and co-lead researcher for the study, added: “I hope that this research will underscore how state-of-the-art innovation in pregnancy health can contribute to the global good and unleash personalised medicine for maternal health in a way we have yet to see.”

Mirvie says the research funded with this grant builds upon the company’s commitment to inclusive, “evidence-based” pregnancy health research through the Mirvie Research Collaborative.

The initiative is currently enrolling at least 10,000 pregnant individuals from highly diverse populations across the US to create the largest biobank of pregnancy transcriptomes.