Professor Donald Peebles was appointed Chair and Head of the Research Department of Maternal Fetal Medicine at UCL in 2008. He has a number of research interests that focus on improving the outcomes for women and their babies following complicated pregnancies. Particular research areas include: 1) maternal innate immunity, infection, inflammation and preterm labour 2) the role of hypoxia and inflammation in causation of perinatal brain injury 3) fetal physiology (especially fetal responses to acute and chronic substrate deprivation) and 4) the development of novel molecular and cellular methods for treatment of fetal disease. He has been extensively involved in developing translational research within Women’s Health through leadership roles in UCL/UCLH Institute for Women’s Health, the UCLH Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre and as Maternity Lead within UCLPartners, UCL’s Academic Health Science Centre. He was appointed as the Obstetric Lead for the London Strategic Clinical Maternity Network in July 2013; key priorities include reducing the stillbirth rate, reducing maternal mortality and morbidity as well as improving women’s experience of maternity services in London. He is a member of the Specialist Maternity CRG and the Preterm Labour Clinical Study Group. He is the President of the Blair Bell Research Society and sits as a member of the RCOG Academic Committee. He has been a Scientific Editor of BJOG, on the RCOG Scientific Committee and sat on several Medical Advisory Panels. In parallel with his research activities he is also a sub-specialty accredited Consultant in Maternal Fetal medicine at UCLH with a particular interest in the management of pregnancy complicated by maternal disease or poor obstetric history and fetal medicine, including fetal therapy, prenatal diagnosis and management of fetal growth restriction.