Professor Rachel Tribe PhD, FPhysiol, FRSB

Biography

Rachel Tribe is Professor of Maternal and Perinatal Health. She trained as a physiologist (BSc Special Dual Hons Physiology and Zoology) at the University of Sheffield and gained a PhD from the University of London focusing on dietary salt intake, sodium transport, and bronchial reactivity. Subsequently, as an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow she studied study smooth muscle intracellular calcium regulation at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, USA.  On returning to the UK, Dr Tribe became interested in pregnancy and preterm birth and now leads a multidisciplinary research group in the Dept. of Women and Children’s Health, KCL funded by the MRC, NIHR, AMR, DBT-BMGFBIRAC-USAID, NIHR BRC, Evolve Biosystems Inc., Rosetree Trust and Tommy’s charity. Dr Tribe’s research focuses on translational research related to preterm birth and other pregnancy associated conditions. Specific interests include uterine ion channel physiology, female reproductive tract innate immune system and interactions with the microbiome in pregnancy, identification of biomarkers for prediction of preterm birth and the potential of combining breastfeeding with probiotic supplementation to improve infant gut health.  Dr Tribe collaborates with colleagues in the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Kenya, The Gambia, Mozambique, India and Bangladesh. She has a developing global health portfolio of studies to understand preterm phenotypes and prediction in different settings and is a Co-I on the PRECISE Network.

Rachel Tribe is a Trustee/Director of The Physiological Society (Council, Chair of the Membership & Grants Committee and Diversity/Equality Lead). Other professional roles include membership of the Preterm Clinical Study Group Executive, Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology UK and PREBIC (Preterm Birth International Collaborative) and Convenor of the Annual Myometrium and Parturition Satellite meeting for the Society of Reproductive Investigation. She is also part of the management team overseeing the collaborative Preterm Birth Network Clinical database; this links data from high risk pregnancies in 29 centres across the UK and abroad for research purposes.  

Professor Tribe teaches biomedical and medical undergraduate students and established the interdisciplinary MSc in Women and Children’s Health. Committed to supporting early career researchers, Rachel Tribe has successfully supervised and mentored many BSc, MSc, MD and PhD students in Women’s Health.