Senior Research Associate                                                                                                                                                                

Looking for potential collaborative opportunities.

Email: cjp1002@cam.ac.uk
Office Phone: 01223 768614

Website Links

https://www.crcpress.com/authors/i1919-clive-petry

https://twitter.com/ClivePetry

https://www.facebook.com/clivepetry1/?fref=ts (Clive Petry Professional Page)

Biography

1998- PhD, University of Cambridge

1993- MSc, University of Surrey

1991- BSc, University of Surrey

Research interest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

My research is involved in trying to understand the mechanisms and consequences of the link between altered fetal growth and the future development of diseases such as gestational and type 2 diabetes, gestational hypertension, the metabolic syndrome and precocious pubarche. The strategy that I have used involves the phenotypic analysis of in vivo models and in vitro genetic association studies relating common polymorphic variation in DNA with markers of disease. I am currently leading a programme of work assessing the role of fetal imprinted genes on maternal metabolism and physiology in pregnancy. We have found a range of fetal genetic variants that are associated with either gestational diabetes or gestational hypertension.

 

 

 

Group members

I am part of the lab research group of Professor David Dunger along with Dianne Wingate (right) and Karen Whitehead (left).

 

 Collaborators

• K. Biobank, Stockport, U.K.
• MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, U.K.
• Departments of Medicine & Preventative Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, U.S.A.
• Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
• Department of Biostatistics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, U.K.

Key words/Topics

• Gestational Diabetes
• Gestational Hypertension
• Pre-eclampsia
• Fetal Growth
• Biomarker Discovery
• Imprinted Genes
• Genetics
• Metabolism
• Paediatrics
• Pregnancy

Funding

• The Evelyn Trust
• Wellbeing of Women

Plain English Summary of Research

We are interested in the type of diabetes and high blood pressure that some women develop in pregnancy, as they are associated with health problems for both the mother and her baby. The risks of these conditions emerging in pregnancy appear to be partly genetic. Although many of the risk genes are the mothers’ own genes related to circulating glucose concentrations and blood pressures there is circumstantial evidence suggesting that fetal genes can also play a part. We proposed the theory that variation in genes that regulate fetal growth, in particularly a group of genes called imprinted genes, could alter a woman’s risk of developing gestational diabetes and pregnancy-induced high blood pressure. In testing our theory using DNA samples, blood samples and various records collected for the Cambridge Baby Growth Study, as well as other birth-related studies, we have found a number of fetal genetic variants that alter these risks. We are also testing various markers in blood samples taken early in pregnancy to see if they are usable in predicting the development of these adverse conditions of pregnancy that we are interested in.

Key Publications

Petry CJ, Beardsall K, Dunger DB. The potential impact of the fetal genotype on maternal blood pressure during pregnancy. J Hypertens. 2014 Aug;32(8):1553-61; discussion 1561. doi: 10.1097/HJH.0000000000000212.  PubMed PMID: 24842698.

Petry CJ (editor). Gestational Diabetes: Origins, Complications and Treatment. ISBN 1439879966, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A., January 2014.

Petry CJ, Seear RV, Wingate DL, Manico L, Acerini CL, Ong KK, Hughes IA,
Dunger DB. Associations between paternally transmitted fetal IGF2 variants and maternal circulating glucose concentrations in pregnancy. Diabetes. 2011 Nov;60(11):3090-6. doi: 10.2337/db11-0689. Epub 2011 Sep 16. PubMed PMID: 21926269; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3198064.

Petry CJ, Seear RV, Wingate DL, Acerini CL, Ong KK, Hughes IA, Dunger DB.
Maternally transmitted foetal H19 variants and associations with birth weight.
Hum Genet. 2011 Nov;130(5):663-70. doi: 10.1007/s00439-011-1005-x. Epub 2011 May
15. PubMed PMID: 21573965.

Petry CJ. Gestational diabetes: risk factors and recent advances in its genetics and treatment.. Br J Nutr. 2010 Sep;104(6):775-87. doi:10.1017/S0007114510001741. Epub 2010 May 21. Review. PubMed PMID: 20487576.

Petry CJ, Evans ML, Wingate DL, Ong KK, Reik W, Constância M, Dunger DB.
Raised late pregnancy glucose concentrations in mice carrying pups with targeted disruption of H19delta13.. Diabetes. 2010 Jan;59(1):282-6. doi: 10.2337/db09-0757. Epub 2009 Sep 30. PubMed PMID: 19794064; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2797934.

Petry CJ, Ong KK, Dunger DB. Does the fetal genotype affect maternal physiology during pregnancy? Trends Mol Med. 2007 Oct;13(10):414-21. Epub 2007 Sep 27. Review. PubMed PMID: 17900986.