Professor Peter von Dadelszen graduated from the University of Otago (New Zealand) in 1984 following an intercalated BMedSc in Anatomy (1981). Following clinical training in Dunedin and Christchurch (NZ), High Wycombe and Oxford (UK) to complete his MRCOG (1991 (FRCOG 2003)), he received funding from Action Research and the Worshipful Company of Girdlers to undertake his DPhil in Clinical Medicine (Obstetrics and Gynaecology) with Chris Redman at Oriel College, University of Oxford. He completed his specialty (FRANZCOG, FRCSC) and subspecialty training (Maternal-Fetal Medicine) at the University of Toronto, Canada, including postdoctoral training with Professors Ori Rotstein and John Marshall. In 2000, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia and Consultant in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at BC Women’s Hospital ((Vancouver, Canada), with subsequent promotion to Associate (2005) and full Professor (2010). He returned to the UK in 2015 as Professor and Academic Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, St George’s, University of London, moving to become Professor of Global Women’s Health, King’s College London in September 2017.

Professor von Dadelszen has served as Residency Research Director (UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology), Director of the Reproduction and Healthy Pregnancy Cluster (Child & Family Research Institute, UBC), and Editor (Hypertension in Pregnancy and Pregnancy Hypertension (founding editor)). Currently, he is a member of the Maternal Morbidity Working Group and the South-East Asia Region Technical Advisory Group (SEAR-TAG) for Women’s and Children’s Health for the World Health Organization, and Chair, Global Health Clinical Studies Group (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists). At King’s College London, he is a member of the King’s Global Health Institute.

With his wife and colleague, Professor Laura Magee, Professor von Dadelszen was the recipient of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy Chesley Award (2014). In addition, he has received the following awards: Excellence in Research Award (Association of Academic Professionals in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Canada), CIHR Knowledge Translation Award (Canadian Institutes of Health Research), Distinguished Achievement Award, Clinical Research (UBC), UBC Early Career Scholar, (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, UBC), President's Presenters' Award (Society for Gynecologic Investigation), Richard Doll Travel Award (Green College at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford), Harvey Carey Prize (RNZCOG), Ian Gordon MacKenzie Scholarship (University of Otago), and Doris Gordon Fellow (New Zealand Obstetric and Gynaecological Society).

The group has research interests in the following areas:

Placental complications of pregnancy

This triad of conditions is the focus of the current RCUK GCRF GROW-funded PRECISE (PREganacy Care Integrating translational Science, Everywhere) Network grant (2017-2021).  Approximately, 2.5 million women, fetuses and infants die annually from these conditions - more than 99% of those deaths are in less-developed countries.

• Pregnancy hypertension

This research agenda spans from social sciences, molecular and cell biology, through clinical research to implementation science, addressing all forms of pregnancy hypertension, but especialy pre-eclampsia, globally. The Gates Foundation-funded PRE-EMPT (PRE-eclampsia-eclampsia Monitoring, Prevention & Treatment) initiaive (2010-2018) has been focussed on pre-eclampsia.

• Fetal growth restriction

This research agenda is aimed at identifying the individual small fetus at risk for adverse events, by identifying those disease pathways that are shared with pre-eclampsia and those that differentiate it from both pre-eclampsia and those fetuses who are constiutionally small. In addition, novel therapeutic appproaches are being tested.

• Stillbirth

This research agenda is geared towards identifying tools that can identify fetuses at risk of stillbirth in less-developed countries using both translational biomarker science and mobile health.

Global women’s health

Women in less-developed countries are exposed to a disproportonate level of risk when they are pregnant and soon after pregnancy.  The focus is to determine those social, geographical, environmental, chronic and infectious disease, and health service factors that interact to create vulnerability and resilience to health events.

Translational research

This broad research agenda has its origins in Professor von Dadelszen's wet laboratory DPhil project dovetailing with clinical experience, and the questions that develop from it.  Recognising that blood pressure is a biomarker, the pipeline from discovery to implementation needs to be streamlined to optimise pregnancy outcomes as quickly as possible.

Precision medicine

All women, irrespective of where they live, deserve precision medicine for screening, time-of-disease risk estimation and evidence-based clinical decision-making supported by mobile health that can be delivered in women's homes in all settings.

The group has research interests in the following areas:

Pregnancy hypertension

Fetal growth restriction

Stillbirth

Global women’s health

Translational research

Precision medicine