Female reproductive care addresses the reproductive system, processes and functions at all stages of life. Although natural reproduction is often taken for granted, today, one in six couples face challenges in achieving pregnancy, and approximately 10-20% of reproductive-aged women are infertile. Reproductive diseases account for 20% of the global ill-health for women (WHO), thus demonstrating the unmet attention to, and the crucial need for improving technologies of female reproductive care that has a significant clinical and social burden.Female fertility is a highly complex process that relies on a restricted pool of oocytes, that, under a tight control of neuroendocrine and ovarian hormones, are regularly matured and released for fertilization followed by embryo development and attachment into the uterine lining that supports its growth until birth. Even slight temporal deviations in this sensitive path may lead to disturbances in oocyte maturation, failure in fertilization or implantation processes, miscarriage or, in most dramatic cases, to the birth of a handicapped child. Female fertility is strictly time-constrained and happens only within the limits of reproductive lifespan, cut by menopause. In natural reproductive aging, the oocyte pool begins to decline rapidly already at late thirties, coinciding with the decreased chances of having a healthy baby and increased risk of age-related infertility. Pregnancies in advanced age are also more prone to fetal chromosomal aberrations that can lead, for instance, to miscarriage or to the birth of a sick child. This is an alarming phenomenon as in the EU and other developed societies families are more often intentionally postponing parenthood due do career and other social responsibilities, thus increasing female age-related reproductive risks and creating profound clinical, social and financial burden.
MATER innovative training network consists of 5 academic and 5 industry partners with outstanding expertise in female reproductive genomics and medicine. Via joint supervision the network aims to train a new generation of 14 creative, entrepreneurial, innovative and ethically sensitive early-stage researchers (ESRs) in the field of female reproductive care. The planed research covers the female fertility from oocyte to a birth of a healthy baby. The research aim of the project is to contribute solving some of the most pressing challenges in female reproductive care by targeting the delicate issues like infertility and pregnancy complications, and devising novel ideas to treat them, avoid miscarriages and implement genetic technologies in prenatal diagnostics to prevent birth of children with chromosomal diseases. Innovation aims of the project are helping students to recognize and understand the ethical issues of their work, as well to prepare them for converting the novel knowledge and ideas into social and economic benefits. Reproductive medicine is an ethically complicated topic and in different European countries the legislation varies widely. Given the importance and complexity of the project, we are focusing on ethical issues, with the aim to provide not only new biological knowledge and innovative technologies, but also answers to important ethical questions. Therefore, the MATER project contributes to the future discussions, rules and legislation regulating reproductive medicine in Europe.
