The faculty was founded as a focus of excellence to promote scientific studies of the human placenta and maternal–fetal interactions during pregnancy. It brings together 13 supervisors, who are recognized international experts in their fields, based in different departments within the Medical University of Graz in Austria (Med Uni Graz). Their range of multidisciplinary expertise extends from biochemistry, through genetics and epigenetics, physiology, pharmacology and metabolism, to clinical studies and epidemiology. This unique depth and breadth of expertise allows members to adopt an integrated and comprehensive scientific approach to understanding the complexity of placental biology. It is further strengthened by several young researchers holding externally funded research fellowships, e. g. Marie Curie grants. The ultimate aim is to explore placental biology in inflammation with modern biomedical tools and translate new findings into approaches to alleviate placenta derived complications of pregnancy, which may be caused by diabetes, growth restriction and pre/eclampsia which all still remain a major cause of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Researchers of the DP-iDP are located at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Otto Loewi Research Center Division of Pharmacology; the Gottfried Schatz Research Center Division of Division of Cell Biology, Histology and Embryology as well as Division of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and the Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine.
