Rate My Professor Craig Pennell

Professor Craig Pennell serves as Chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Professor in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Newcastle, with clinical appointments at John Hunter Hospital as a Senior Staff Specialist. He earned his MBBS with Honours from the University of Adelaide and a PhD in fetal physiology from the University of Western Australia, complemented by postdoctoral training in molecular genetics at the University of Toronto. With over 20 years managing high-risk pregnancies, his career encompasses subspecialty training in maternal fetal medicine and leadership roles including Co-Director of the Mothers and Babies Research Program at the Hunter Medical Research Institute and Foundation Scientific Director of the Newcastle 1000 (NEW1000) Family Study. Appointed Chair of the Red Nose National Scientific Advisory Group in 2018, he contributes to stillbirth prevention and support for bereaved families.

Pennell's research centers on personalised medicine in perinatal health and the developmental origins of health and disease, leveraging genetics and genomics to predict and prevent preterm birth, fetal growth complications, stillbirth, and lifelong non-communicable diseases. His work spans genome-wide association studies on placental weight, parturition timing, glycemic traits, dyslexia, refractive error, and cardiometabolic outcomes, drawing from cohorts like the Raine Study, NEW1000, and Preterm Birth Genome Project. He participates in 13 multinational consortia and explores clinical interventions such as progesterone, cerclage, and RNA-based tests for preterm labor prediction. Pennell has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, including six in Nature, 27 in Nature Genetics, and seven in Nature Communications, amassing more than 21,878 citations on Scopus. Key publications include 'Genome-wide association study of placental weight identifies distinct and shared genetic influences between placental and fetal growth' (Nature Genetics, 2023), 'Genetic effects on the timing of parturition and links to fetal birth weight' (Nature Genetics, 2023), and 'Newcastle 1000 (NEW1000) Study: an Australian population-based prospective pregnancy cohort study design and protocol' (BMJ Open, 2023). Over 24 years, he has secured more than $33 million in competitive research grants, underscoring his global influence in reproductive health genomics.