A collaboration between The University of Sheffield and The University of Cape Town

PRE-TERM BIRTH Dialogues

Cape Town South Africa

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Welcome to the PRE-TERM BIRTH Dialogues Conference

The PRE-TERM BIRTH Dialogues 2019 will be held in Cape Town South Africa from 27th to 29 January.

This is a network meeting funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK and was awarded to Professors Clive Gray and Dilly Anumba – an immunologist and an obstetrician specialist. At the heart of this meeting is to bring World renowned experts together to understand the spectrum of spontaneous Preterm Birth (PTB) and what causes such an adverse birth outcome.

A collaboration between The University of Sheffield and The University of Cape Town

Being held in Africa is also very poignant in that a major cause of PTB is the burden of disease, such as HIV and malaria. We thus bring together keynote speakers and young investigators from multiple continents to network, dialogue and formulate strategies that can map out investigator-initiated research into PTB.

About This Years' Event

The aim of the meeting is to create a network of investigators who perform research across the maternal-fetal ecosystem ranging from epidemiology, social science, genetics, immunology, metabolics, microbiology, diagnostics, prognostics, biomarkers and guideline/policy development. This wide and eclectic mix provides a rich blend of disciplines focusing around PTB, and how best to prevent, understand causation and manage the outcomes.

THEME: Addressing the challenges of meeting the SDG Goals for Maternal and Child Health by mitigating Preterm Birth in LMICs.

Every year nearly 15 million babies are born prematurely. Preterm Birth complications account for nearly 1 million infant deaths. The incidence of Preterm Birth is higher in low middle-income countries (LMICs) than in countries with more resources. The chance of being born prematurely is higher among women who have infections during pregnancy, including infection with HIV and malaria that is highly prevalent in LMICs. Premature babies that survive, have a higher chance of illness episodes in the first year of life and of childhood death. It is plausible that we can better predict, prevent and manage premature births, particularly those associated with infections, in LMICs. This networking conference, the Preterm Birth Dialogues, will bring together trans-national researchers from many different professions to brainstorm about current and future research as well strategies to improve maternal and child health around Preterm Birth, focusing on LMICs.

Conference In Detail

This Years' Hosts

Clive Gray


Clive Gray is full Professor and Chair of the Division of Immunology at the University of Cape Town, Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine and Department of Pathology, with a joint appointment to the National Health Laboratory Service. He is the Director of the Tissue Immunology diagnostics lab within the NHLS at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. This is the only lab in Africa to be accredited by the European Federation of Immunogenetics. He holds a Faculty position as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Immunology, Duke University, North Carolina, USA.

He graduated with an MSc and PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand and undertook a post-doc at Stanford University from 1996-98. On returning to South Africa, he became head of HIV Immunology at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases until 2010. From 2011, he has been at UCT in his present position. His focus has shifted from measuring T cell epitope recognition and the dynamics of T cells during acute HIV infection to understanding immune regulation and T cell activation within mucosal and epithelial surfaces and the risk of HIV infection. He is also investigating immune ontogeny in HIV exposed uninfected newborn infants and the impact of HIV infection on foetal-maternal tolerance and how inherited HLA play a role in shaping vaccine responses in the first year of life.

He is the founder and director of Immunopaedia (www.immunopaedia.org.za), an on-line immunology web-site endorsed and sponsored by the International Union of Immunology Societies (IUIS). He is the Vice-Chair of the Education Committee of the IUIS and he is the co-Chair of the IUIS International Conference on Immunology in 2022, to be held in Cape Town.

Dilly Anumba


Dilly Anumba (MBBS, FWACS, MD, FRCOG, LLM Medical Law) is Academic Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Sheffield Medical School, Sheffield UK. He is a Consultant in Obstetrics & Gynaecology, with subspecialist accreditation in maternal and Fetal Medicine.

Dilly is Clinician and Sheffield Training Programme Director for Maternal and Fetal Medicine at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. He runs specialist clinics in Fetal Ultrasound, Prenatal Diagnosis and Fetal Therapy, Prematurity Prevention and Care, and High-Risk Pregnancy. His research interests are translational, focusing on the physiology of human parturition, reproductive immunology and health inequalities. He is Principal Investigator on several Project Grants funded by the UK’s Department of Health, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council, investigating novel approaches to predict and manage Preterm Birth. He is the Director of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Preterm Birth Prevention and Care (PRIME) at the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with researchers in South Africa, Bangladesh and Nigeria.

He has graduated and currently supervises numerous Graduate and Post-graduate clinical and basic science students and researchers. Dilly is the Faculty of Medicine Director for Academic Training at the University of Sheffield, serves as Vice Chair of the Academic Board of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He has served for two terms on the Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme (MTEP) of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Care and Excellence (NICE), amongst other roles in numerous professional bodies and societies nationally and internationally.

This Years' Keynote Speakers

Joy Lawn

Joy is an African-born, British-trained paediatrician and perinatal epidemiologist with 30 years of experience including clinical care, epidemiological burden estimates, and the design and evaluation of integrated services at scale, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Her particular contribution has been developing the evidence-base to belter measure and reduce the global burden of 2.6 million neonatal deaths, 2.6 million stillbirths, and 15 million Preterm Births. She has published <250 peer reviewed papers, with an H index >100, as well as several high-profile policy reports such as "Born Too Soon". She is currently Professor of Epidemiology, at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Director of Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive & Child Health (MARCH) centre including 200 academics organised around three research themes: Adolescents, Births, and Child health. She is LSHTM’s Aurora Women's Leadership Champion.

Tina Lavender

Dame Tina is Professor of Midwifery and Director of the Centre for Global Women’s Health at the University of Manchester. She holds an honorary contract at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester and a Visiting Professorship at the University of Nairobi. She leads a programme of research; her main focus being intrapartum care. Dame Tina is a Senior NIHR Investigator and is currently Director of an NIHR Stillbirth Group. She is Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Midwifery and Associate Editor of the African Journal of Midwifery. Dame Tina is an External Examiner at the University of Malawi and a regular Advisor to the World Health Organization.

Lloyd Tooke

Lloyd Tooke is a paediatrician and neonatologist based at Groote Schuur Hospital and is a lecturer at the University of Cape Town. He has interests in neonatal infections and the care of the very small infant in resource limited settings. Other interests include neonatal databases, particularly the Vermont Oxford network. He has assisted in training 10 neonatologists (and counting) through the African Paediatric Fellowship Program (APFP), all of whom are now practising in their home countries in other parts of Africa. He has published a riddle book and spends a lot of time running after his puppy and three children.

Thoko Malaba

Thoko Malaba is a researcher at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Epidemiological Research (CIDER) and lecturer in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Cape Town. Her work focuses primarily on maternal and child health in the context of HIV, particularly the use of antiretroviral therapy in pregnancy. She is currently involved in clinical, population-based and health systems research studies in HIV-infected women using different antiretroviral therapy regimens in pregnancy. Her specific research interests are adverse birth outcomes and the methodological issues encountered in perinatal research studies.

Atinuke Olaleye

Dr Atinuke Olaleye is a board-certified Obstetrician Gynecologist, Fellow of the West Africa College of Surgeons, and the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. She holds a WHO/TDR Clinical Research and Development Fellowship, and is an EDCTP Career Development Fellow, conducting research on parasite resistance to Malaria chemoprophylaxis in Pregnancy. Her research interests include the perinatal transmission of infectious diseases, and drug/vaccine safety in pregnancy. Dr Olaleye is a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Obstetrician Gynecologist at the Babcock University and Teaching Hospital, Ogun state, Nigeria. She is also director of the institution’s Centre for Advanced Medical Research and Biotechnology (CAMRAB).

Marie-Louise Newell

Professor Marie-Louise Newell, a paediatric epidemiologist, is Professor of Global Health, at the University of Southampton, UK. Her personal research is focussed on maternal and child health, in particular research on HIV infection in pregnancy & childhood. She was for eight years (until late 2013) Director of the Wellcome Trust-funded Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, leading a programme of research on the impact of HIV and HIV-treatment on the population. With collaborators at UCT, she is currently focussing on researching the impact of antiretroviral treatment on rates of preterm and small-for-gestational age infants in a cohort in Gugulethu, Cape Town.

Priya Soma-Pillay

Priya Soma-Pillay is the head of Obstetrics and Maternal and Fetal Medicine at the University of Pretoria and Steve Biko Academic Hospital. Priya has a special interest in cardiac disease in pregnancy and is the chapter head for the medical and surgical diseases chapter of the Saving Mother’s Report. She is the co-director of the SAMRC Maternal and Infant Healthcare Strategies Unit and is a co-editor of “Obstetric Essentials” textbook. Priya serves on the following councils: Council for the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of South Africa (secretary), South African Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (secretary), member of the National Committee for the Confidential enquiry into Maternal Deaths and is the chairperson of the obstetric sub-committee of the Expert Opinion Panel.

Marta Cohen

Marta Cohen is a Paediatric and Perinatal Pathologist at Sheffield Children’s Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield, UK. Past President of the International Paediatric Pathology Association, Course Director of IPPA Advanced Course, , Member of the Paed Pathol Soc; Former Chair of the Paediatric Pathology Group of the ESP and Board member of the International Society for the Study and Prevention of Perinatal and Infant Death International research profile and opinion leader in paediatric pathology, she is part of the pioneer team in the UK providing Minimally Invasive autopsy using PM MRI in foetuses and neonates; recognised in the book “The first fifty years of the European Society of pathology”; Editorial Board Member of PDP, author of 18 chapters in books; 127 articles in peer reviewed journals; Co-editor oif the Paediatric and Perinatal Autopsy Manual and the book Essentials of Surgical Pathology for Cambridge Press.

Stephen Obaro

Stephen Obaro MBBS, FWACP, MRCP(UK), FRCPCH, FAAP, PhD, FIDSA, FPIDSAis Professor of Pediatrics, Director of International Pediatric Research Program and Adjunct Professor with the Department of Microbiology and Pathology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In his capacity as the Head of Field Station at UK MRC Research Laboratories in The Gambia, his team established a surveillance program that contributed substantive data to the formulation of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for developing countries. He has also established field studies in Nigeria to understand the epidemiology of bacteremic syndromes in children and the risk factors associated with these infections, through funding support from the National Institutes for Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Stephen is a trustee and co-founder of International Foundation Against Infectious Diseases in Nigeria (IFAIN).

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