Donald Torry, Ph.D.

November 29, 2006                                                    

SIU Med School Receives National Grant to Study Obstetrical

Complications

A faculty researcher at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded a five-year federal grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study preeclampsia, one of the leading obstetric complications.  Total budget for the grant is $1,112,650.

In some pregnancies, the mothers’ blood supply to the placenta is deficient so babies in the womb do not get enough oxygen or nutrients and may not grow properly.  The study aims to determine how to increase expression of genes needed for blood vessel formation in the uterus in order to potentially lessen the severity of preeclampsia and allow more time for the pregnancy to continue.

Donald S. Torry, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology and of obstetrics and gynecology, is the principal investigator for the project.

Torry’s research has been funded for ten years by NICHD and now totals $2 million.  His research has focused on placenta growth factor and preeclampsia.

Torry joined the SIU faculty in 2000.  He completed a four-year research fellowship in pathology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. (1992).  He completed his doctorate in microbiology and immunology at SIU Carbondale as well as his master’s and bachelor’s degrees (1989, 1985, 1983).

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