Rate My Professor Kirsty Pringle

Professor Kirsty Pringle is a Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She holds the position of Assistant Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and leads the Placental Biology and Pregnancy Research Group within the Mothers and Babies Program at the Hunter Medical Research Institute. Pringle also directs the Gomeroi Gaaynggal Study, a longitudinal cohort study focused on maternal and child health outcomes, with a particular emphasis on Australian Aboriginal communities. She completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a PhD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Adelaide in 2008. Following her doctoral studies, she joined the University of Newcastle in 2008 as a postdoctoral researcher and has advanced through successive academic appointments to her current role as Professor.

Pringle's research specializations encompass placental biology, the renin-angiotensin system in human pregnancy, preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, maternal nutrition and its effects on fetal kidney development, and reproductive health disparities in Indigenous populations. She has produced 148 peer-reviewed publications, including highly influential papers such as 'Beyond oxygen: complex regulation and activity of hypoxia inducible factors in pregnancy' (Human Reproduction Update, 2009), 'The expression and localization of the human placental prorenin/renin-angiotensin system throughout pregnancy: roles in trophoblast invasion and angiogenesis?' (Placenta, 2011), 'Roles of the circulating renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in human pregnancy' (American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 2014), 'Causes and consequences of the dysregulated maternal renin-angiotensin system in preeclampsia' (Frontiers in Endocrinology, 2019), and 'Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in pregnancy: preeclampsia and small for gestational age' (Frontiers in Physiology, 2020). Her scholarship has amassed over 2,500 citations. Pringle has attracted more than $3.9 million in competitive research funding, including an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, three National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grants as Chief Investigator A, and a Medical Research Future Fund grant. In 2023, she was awarded the Society for Reproductive Biology Award for Excellence in Reproductive Biology. Her contributions advance understanding of pregnancy complications and inform strategies to enhance maternal-fetal health.