Professor Sarah Robertson is on a personal mission as
“There will be some very exciting advances in the near
well as a professional one.
future,” she says. “We will have amazing technologies
As one of the world’s foremost experts in reproductive
biology, and Director of the University’s Robinson
Research Institute – leading 400 researchers working
for assessing and responding to health conditions
before they can be transmitted to the child, with much
better preventative health measures.
on pregnancy and infant health – she is keenly aware of
“For example, we’re going to see remarkable capacity to
the huge responsibility such work carries with it and its
assess and improve people’s reproductive competence,
ability to transform people’s lives.
particularly the status and quality of eggs and sperm.
At a time when she was transitioning from the field of
immunology to reproduction in the late 1980s, a close
friend had delivered a baby boy at only 28 weeks of
gestation. He weighed 850 grams.
“He was so tiny; plus he was underweight for his
gestational age because my friend had pre-eclampsia.
It was a life-threatening situation and a shattering
experience for the family,” Professor Robertson says.
In the past, tests for male fertility have been relatively
simple – they’ve been based around measuring sperm
counts and sperm mobility. But in the future we’re going
to be measuring the role of tiny molecules, such as noncoding RNAs (ribonucleic acids), and we’ll be looking at
the molecular composition of seminal fluid.
“We will also assess the egg mitochondria (the critical
energy-producing ‘organs’ within living cells), which play
an important role in transmitting metabolic information
Each year, 15 million families around the world
from the mother to the child. There’s also the potential
experience a pre-term birth (at less than 37 weeks’
for stem cell technology to be used to develop healthy
gestation), and one million of those babies die. Pre-term
eggs and sperm,” she says.
birth is now the world’s biggest killer of children under
the age of five, and prevents many more reaching their
full life potential.
She says IVF technology will improve to better replicate
the real environment of conception and maturation of
an embryo. “We’ll be looking to develop nanoscale,
“Pre-term birth results in major issues for the infant and
microfluidic systems for a real-time adjustment of the
the family, with health and developmental consequences
IVF culture to match the individual embryo’s needs. This
that can stay with the child for life. It is very motivating
is within our reach, and it’s part of what we’re working
when you can see in your own family and friends the
on in the Institute.”
distress that illnesses of pregnancy cause,” she says.
“There will
be fantastic
developments
emerging from
reproductive
medicine ... but
we also have to
change people’s
mindset around
the solution not
always being a
magic pill.”
Professor Robertson says improvements in real-time
It’s two years into Professor Robertson’s directorship
sensing will also have a major impact. “Being able to
and the Robinson Research Institute is having continued
monitor the status of a pregnancy, particularly when
PHOTO
success across each of its research themes. Many
we talk about the threat of pre-term birth, and to
members of the Institute are now preparing to move
Professor Sarah Robertson
measure the development of the fetus over the course
down North Terrace to the University’s new Adelaide
of pregnancy will give us the opportunity to intervene
Health and Medical Sciences building in the city’s West
much earlier.”
End. The move to new, state-of-the-art laboratories will
be crucial to the future of the Institute’s work, and will
accelerate capacity to make significant inroads into the
causes of preterm birth and other conditions that affect
infant and child health, such as a recent finding about
the biological factors that influence the timing of birth.
However,
Professor
Robertson
cautions
that
technological changes are only a part of the story.
we also have to change people’s mindset around the
solution not always being a magic pill. The solution is
often in your own reach. If you care for your health and
maintain it, that will have the greatest impact on your
finding ways of predicting risk, and ultimately preventing
fertility and the long-term health of your child.
and globally,” she says.
“I would really like to see a future in which all aspiring
parents have a greater sense of ownership of their own
reproductive capacity and their reproductive ‘careers’,
Another key focus of the Institute’s work is unravelling
if you like. I’d like to see school students educated to
the complex biology that results in parents – both
understand the incredible privilege and value of their
mothers and fathers – transmitting information to their
capacity to reproduce, even many years before the time
offspring at the time of conception, effectively setting
when they might want to start a family.
their child up for a lifetime of good, or poor, health.
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reproductive medicine in the decades to come, but
and care for children who are born too soon, but also
advances would make a huge difference, in Australia
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“There will be fantastic developments emerging from
“For us, it’s not just about providing better treatment
pre-term birth. This is one area where even small
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“And it’s not just about the biology and our genes,
Professor Robertson says she’s positive that future
it’s what I describe as ‘from cells to cities’. Better
research developments will impact not only people’s
nutrition, exercise, better workplace and cleaner built
ability to have a child, but to help ensure their child has
environments, these al