Welcome

The International PREterm BIrth Collaborative (PREBIC) was initiated on June 7th 2004 during a workshop on Biomarkers and Preterm Birth in Denmark. The purpose of the collaborative is to support and enhance international networking among researchers in preterm birth and the establishment of multinational research projects on preterm birth. The open dialog and the active contribution of all participants is encouraged.

PREBIC's Vision

PREBIC aims to improve pregnancy and birth outcomes and optimize infant health and long term development to assure optimal adult health. This will be accomplished by promoting and supporting key principles that include a world wide investigation into the causes and prevention of preterm birth (PTB) and low birth weight (LBW), as well as an evaluation of risk factors and biomarkers for identifying patients at risk for PTB and LBW, and creation of intervention strategies for prevention and management of pregnancies at risk for early medically indicated delivery. In collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations such as March of Dimes, USA, PREBIC will expand the effort to promote an international focus to understand and prevent PTB and LBW, to improve pregnancy outcome and infant health, and to lessen the risk of childhood, adolescent and adult diseases.
The collaborative anticipates annual workshops for the entire collaborative as well as sub-meetings in relation to other international meetings.

Five workshops have been held in previous years: (click for details)

2003, March, Michigan

1st International workshop on Biomarkers and PTD The first meeting was arranged by Claudia Holzman and Perigrantees at Michigan State University in Lansing, USA. The goal of the first workshop was to identify promising biomarkers of PTD that may elucidate underlying causes and future strategies for primary and secondary prevention of PTD. The set-up of the meeting was individual presentation and discussions. A prioritized list of biomarkers for further studies was generated as well as the ambition to meet again.

2004, June, Denmark

2nd International workshop on Biomarkers and PTD The second meeting was arranged by Ida Vogel and Poul Thorsen, and the MOD PERI-grantees were the scientifical committee. The meeting was held in Sandbjerg, Denmark. The goals for the 2nd workshop were to generate a forum for international projects, future collaborations scientific progress based on fruitful discussions, exchange of ideas and potentially friendship. The final product was to be scientific protocols owned by all participants. 5 protocols on genetics, preconception identification of women at risk for PTB, Pathways, Time trends and preventions and interventions were generated.

2005, March, California

3rd International workshop on Biomarkers and PTB The third worksop was organized by Calvin Hobel, Pathik Wadhwa and Karla Damus and was held a UCLA's conference center at Lake Arrowhead. Again 5 groups were generated (stress, genetics, clinical studies, definitions and infection/inflammation). The goal was to develop an International Collaborative Research Agenda.

2006, April, Geneva

4th International workshop on Biomarkers and PTB The fourth workshop was organized by Mario Merialdi and Ramkumar Menon, and was held at WHO headquarters, More than 40 participants worked in 5 groups on genetics, pathways, international studies, interventions and on definitions. Updated program is avialable here (PDF).

2007, April, Geneva

5th International workshop on Biomarkers and PTB The fifth workshop was organized by Mario Merialdi, Holger Maul, Hanns Helmer and Ram Menon, and was held at WHO in Geneva.