Professor Vicki Clifton is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow at Mater Research. Vicki leads the Pregnancy and Development Research Group, and is the Scientific Director of the Queensland Family Cohort Study.

Vicki has established an international reputation as leader in the field of asthma and pregnancy research and has authored more than 160 publications. She has a specific interest in the sex specific differences in the fetal-placental response to complications of pregnancy understanding the different strategies male and female fetuses institute to cope with adverse events in pregnancy and how this ensures their survival in early life. Her work has focussed on the recruitment of pregnant women and following them longitudinally to determine how maternal health and stress can change in pregnancy, and how that may affect the placenta, fetus and health of the child in the long term.

Vicki’s wider contributions are related to engagement in the development of guidelines for the treatment of asthma during pregnancy on both a national and international level. She has been on the Executive Board of the International Society of Endocrinology since 2015 and was the first female President of the Endocrine Society of Australia (2006-2013). Vicki has also been the Editor of the Placenta Journal since 2012.

Vicki’s research has attracted over $7.6 million dollars of funding and it is expected to shed light on the impact of maternal asthma on child health and the mechanisms contributing to reduced fetal growth. This knowledge will underpin the development of interventions aimed at improving health outcomes for the mother and offspring in pregnancy.

Vicki did most of her training at the Mothers and Babies Research Centre in Newcastle, Australia (1991-2007) as a PhD student and postdoctoral fellow, and was the Deputy Director of the Centre between 2006 and 2007. Before moving to Brisbane, she was employed at the Robinson Research Institute, School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health at the University of Adelaide (2008-2015) and Director of Clinical Research at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide (2009-2014).

“I lost a baby at 20 weeks and that experience led to me being interested in the placenta and how it worked to ensure a baby survived a pregnancy. So now a great part of my research is focused on the health of pregnant women, the role of the placenta and its relationship to fetal growth and long term health in childhood”.