Obstetrician, chemist earn NCInnovation funding

UNC-Chapel Hill researchers with projects on expanding access to affordable ultrasounds and creating a new fibrosis treatment received grant funding from NCInnovation, a nonprofit that supports North Carolina public university applied researchers.

Ongoing projects by Dr. Jeffrey S. A. Stringer, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the UNC School of Medicine, and Ronit Freeman, associate professor in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ applied physical sciences department, are among the 17 in the UNC System receiving the grants.

Stringer and his team have created a low-cost ultrasound device that connects with smartphones and tablets. Women without nearby maternity care options could access prenatal sounds through primary physicians or local nurses with the device, which uses artificial intelligence. More than 2 million American women live in counties without adequate access to prenatal care, according to the March of Dimes.

Freeman and her collaborators are developing a drug to treat fibrosis, which is a scarring of heart, lung or other organ tissue. Only a fraction of fibrosis patients receive existing treatments because of limited effects. Freeman’s team envisions producing an inhalant that, when taken weekly, would slow the condition’s progression and potentially reverse fibrosis, which would be unprecedented in humans.