Anna David is Director of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health at University College London in London. She is also Professor and Honorary Consultant in Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine at UCL Hospital. Her clinical practice specializes in fetal medicine, severe congenital disease, fetal growth restriction and prevention of preterm birth. Her research team at UCL is developing novel prenatal therapies using stem cells and gene therapy and combinations thereof, for severe and life-threatening obstetric conditions and congenital disease. She leads a European Commission FP7 funded consortium “EVERREST” that is translating a maternal growth factor gene therapy for severe fetal growth restriction into the clinic. This 6 year program has included exploring the bioethics of gene therapy in pregnancy, preclinical efficacy and reproductive toxicology studies and developing a first-in-woman clinical trial. Anna leads UCL as a partner in a European Commission Horizon 2020 funded consortium “BOOSTB4”, that is conducting the first clinical trial of
in utero stem cell transplantation for a severe congenital disease of newborns. She also works with engineers and medical image computing experts in the GIFT-Surg project developing novel imaging and surgical procedures for the fetus.