Dr Jo James is a biomedical scientist at the University of Auckland. At the end of 2018, Dr James and her research partner, bioengineer Dr Alys Clark, were awarded almost a million dollars in Marsden funding to enable them to create a virtual model of the uterus - and specifically the blood vessels in the uterus, so understand how they contrinute to blood flow to the placenta. The research will aim to combat the problem of fetal growth resrtiction (FGR), where babies are born abnormally small. More widely, a poorly functioning placenta is thought to be a major component of the disease process in many pregnancy disorders including preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction (FGR) and recurrent miscarriage. Together, these disorders affect 1 in 10 pregnancies.