Gapps Global Alliance To Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth

PERINATAL RESEARCHDeveloping a successful array of solutions for adverse birth outcomes urgently requires a broader understanding of normal pregnancy. We need to close our knowledge gaps before we can close our solution gaps.In addition to convening global scientific experts around the challenge to methodically study pregnancy and early newborn health, GAPPS is working with partners to close these gaps by: Leading global harmonization efforts to strengthen perinatal research; establishing standard definitions and classifications for preterm birth and stillbirth; founding a widely accessible biorepository focused on maternal and newborn health; building research capacity in low- and middle-income countries; establishing ethical guidelines for pregnancy-related research in low- and middle-income countries; working to inform global policy and advocacy efforts for preterm birth and stillbirth; discovering and promoting basic and translational science in preterm birth and maternal/child health; defining the global burden of prematurity and stillbirth; developing evidence-based interventions appropriate to low-resource settings to reduce the burden of maternal and neonatal disease

ENSPIREENSPIRE Study: Engaging Staff to Improve COVID-19 Vaccination Rates at Long-Term Care Facilities. In the United States, COVID-19 was first seen in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). The pandemic has particularly burdened these facilities. It is crucial that workers at LTCFs are vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect themselves, their families, and the older adults in their care. However, LTCF workers have lower vaccination rates than needed to protect them and the people they care for.Many LTCF staff belong to immigrant, refugee, and/or racial and ethnic groups that due to historical and current racism and mistreatment do not trust information from governments or doctors about vaccines. This project will work with LTCF staff to offer COVID-19 vaccine information that is trustworthy and tailored to the needs of language or cultural groups. The specific goals of this project are to: 1)Compare two ways of tailoring information about the COVID-19 vaccines for specific LTCFs staff populations versus the generic materials that are usually distributed. We will test if and how much more these two tailoring approaches increase vaccination rates of LTCFs staff compared to generic messages; 2)Study if the way COVID-19 vaccine information is developed and offered is practical for use by LTCFs and other community health organizations.

GAPPS Bioservices was founded in 2009 to serve the urgent need for biological specimens to support research on complications in pregnancy. GAPPS offers full service biospecimen management including biospecimen procurement and management, sample storage and tracking, and molecular analyte extraction. Comprehensive quality control and quality assurance systems are built into every component of our operations. GAPPS has harnessed its expertise in collection and storage of a wide variety of sample types and their derivatives to provide investigators with high quality data and biospecimens to support translational research around the world, including research on normal and abnormal pregnancies, how pregnancy affects maternal and child health after delivery, and fetal origins of diseases.GAPPS Bioservices operates a widely-accessible biobank of standardized, high-quality specimens linked to data from diverse populations of pregnant women and their babies. The collection includes contributions from women representing a range of racial, ethnic, regional and socioeconomic backgrounds. In the United States, GAPPS has recruited and followed the pregnancies of over 2,500 women, collecting extensive demographic and medical data linked to over 136,000 banked specimens. Over 30,000 of these have been distributed to researchers to study the causes of pregnancy complications, and ultimately to develop interventions to save the lives of mothers and babies