About the Editors
Editor-in-Chief
Melissa M Medvedev, MD, PhD
University of California San Francisco
UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences
USA
Melissa Medvedev is an Associate Professor of Neonatology and a Faculty Affiliate in the Institute for Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on the evaluation of interventions to improve health outcomes among vulnerable women, infants, and children. Melissa has led or co-led over a dozen clinical trials and studies, consulted for and advised health tech companies (digital health, machine learning, devices), and serves on the WHO Every Newborn Measurement Improvement Working Group and the UNICEF/Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies Target Product Profiles Advisory Group. She previously served as an Associate Editor of npj Digital Medicine, where she focused on digital health and artificial intelligence technologies and led a Collection on Women’s Health and Maternal Care. Melissa received her MD from the University of Texas, Houston and completed clinical training in Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at UCSF. She obtained her PhD in Epidemiology and Medical Statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she was awarded the Woodruff Medal, and completed postdoctoral fellowships in Preterm Birth at UCSF and Biodesign Innovation at Stanford University.
Associate Editors
Stephanie Gaw, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Maternal Fetal Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
Dr. Stephanie Gaw is an Associate Professor of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine with a dual MD and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology. She is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Maternal Fetal Medicine. Her research is focused on global infectious diseases in pregnancy, with a focus on maternal-fetal immunology and placental biology. Dr Gaw has served on advisory panels for the WHO, CDC, and NIH on Zika, COVID-19, and tuberculosis in pregnancy.
Nicole Hashemi, PhD
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
USA
Dr. Nicole Hashemi is a MizzouForward Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Missouri. She is interested in developing devices and technologies that improve women's health, enhance clinical diagnosis, and expand healthcare access. Nicole has led a multi-institutional team of researchers working to develop a “placenta-on-a-chip” model to test how medicines, nutrients, and other substances are passed from mother to fetus and vice versa. She is the recipient of the 2023 NSF Mid-CAREER Advancement Award for her placenta-on-a-chip project. Nicole is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Huiqi Yvonne Lu, PhD
Lecturer in Engineering Science
University of Oxford, UK
Dr Lu is a researcher in AI for health and sensor informatics. She is a Stipendiary Lecturer in Engineering, and an academic member of Faculty and the Co-Chair of Researchers Committee at the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford. She also holds an honorary Research Fellow position at the George Institute for Global Health, Imperial College London. Dr Lu obtained her DPhil in mobile computing and pattern recognition at the University of Sussex. She then worked on medical imaging research in breast cancer and diabetic retinopathy. Dr Lu joined the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford with a Royal Academy of Engineering Daphne Jackson Research Fellowship. She then became an independent investigator focused on AI and digital medicine, especially on wearable devices and patient monitoring of chronic conditions and women’s health. Dr Lu is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and holds workshop committee positions at ICLR, NeurIPs, IJCAI and PHME.
Maral Mousavi, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California
California, US
Maral’s research experiences and interests span from point-of-care diagnostics, to electrochemical sensors, wearable devices, neural probes, and tools for precision medicine. I am particularly interested in soft wearable sensors that improve health outcomes for women. My group develops a range of electrochemical sensors with focus on addressing health disparities and improving access to care, and diagnosis.

Sarah Perret
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
Sarah Perret MS is a researcher interested in women’s health, psychiatry, and the incorporation of technology in medicine. She completed her master's degree at Boston University with field work at Harvard Medical School and the Division of Digital Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her research focuses on 1) perinatal digital mental health and the applied use of digital phenotyping for improving maternal outcomes and 2) digital literacy and equity around access to and skills for utilizing technology in care settings.
Shier Nee Saw, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Dr. Saw Shier Nee is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr. Saw's research focuses on the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare, particularly in fetal medicine informatics. Her primary research interest lies in improving women's health and fetal health through data-driven, predictive technologies that support early diagnosis and intervention. Dr. Saw leads the Human AI Lab, aiming to transform and improve human health through AI and engineering innovations.
Aurea Simon-Soro, PhD
Department of Stomatology. Faculty of Dentistry. Universidad de Sevilla
Seville, SPAIN
Dr. Aurea Simon-Soro is an Associate Professor at the University of Seville and leads Hormobiome, a research group studying how hormone-microbiome interactions shape health in areas like aging, fertility, and autoimmune diseases. By combining clinical and translational approaches, her group aims to uncover underlying mechanisms and develop non-invasive diagnostics and personalized therapies to improve women’s health.
Advisory Editor
Riikka Jokinen, PhD
University of Helsinki
Riikka joined Nature Communications in December 2018, and handles manuscripts in the fields of metabolism, endocrinology and gastroenterology, focusing on clinical and translational studies. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Helsinki, where she studied tissue-specific regulation of mitochondrial DNA. She then joined the Obesity Research Unit at the University of Helsinki and worked on disease mechanisms and treatment targets for obesity and related metabolic diseases.
Editorial Board Members
Prabha S Chandra, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Dean, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences
Bangalore, INDIA
Linda C. Giudice, MD, PhD
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
Jane Elizabeth Hirst, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FANZCOG
The George Institute for Global Health, Imperial College London
Peter Waiswa, PhD
Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda
Janice Du Mont, EdD
Women's College Research Institute, Women's College Hospital
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mahla Poudineh, PhD
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, ON, Canada
Arvin Arani, PhD
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN, USA
Demilade Adedinsewo, MD
Mayo Clinic
Jacksonville, FL, USA
Michelle Khine, PhD
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, California
Adeniyi Olagunju, PhD
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, UK
Susanna Chiocca, PhD
European Institute of Oncology, IEO
Milano, Italy
Hamideh Bayrampour, PhD
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Tommaso Simoncini, PhD
University of Pisa
Italy
Sudhin Thayyil, PhD
Imperial College London
London, UK
Xiaotao Shen,PhD
Stanford University,
Palo Alto, CA, USA
Noemi Salmeri,MD
Department of OBGYN, IRCCS San Raffaele Institute,
Milan, MI,Italy
Gang Qin,MD,
Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University,
Nantong, JS, China
Miguel de Sousa Mendes,MD
DRK Kliniken Berlin Westend,Médecins Sans Frontières,
Berlin, Germany
Pallavi Dubey, PhD
Research Instructor
El Paso, Texas, USA
Chong Chen, PhD
Yamaguchi University
Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan
Kathryn Clancy, PhD
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL 61801
Karla Hutt, PhD
Monash University
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Marianna Alperin, MD
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, CA, USA
Elizabeth Oliver, PhD
Zurich, Switzerland
Judith Regensteiner, PhD
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Aurora, Colorado
Debora Kamin Mukaz, PhD
Larner College of Medicine at The University of Vermont
Burlington, VT, USA
Yong Wang, PhD
Washington University in St Louis
St. Louis, MO, USA
Adama Sesay, PhD
Wyss Institue for Biologically Inspired Engineering
Boston, MA USA
Soraya Mezouar, PhD
Aix-Marseille University, ADES Unit
France
Zifan Wang, PhD
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
USA
Athina Samara, PhD
Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, FUTURE, Center for Functional Tissue Reconstruction, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Stockholm, Sweden
Sandy Elmehrath, PhD
The Wyss Institute at Harvard University
Boston, MA
Shier Nee Saw, PhD
Department of Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Cheryl Rosenfeld, PhD
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO, USA
Anagha Joshi, PhD
University of Bergen
Bergen, Norway
Madeline Balaam, PhD
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
Raffaella De Vita, PhD
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA
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