Rate My Professor Rachel Tribe

Professor Rachel Tribe is Professor of Maternal and Perinatal Health in the Department of Women and Children’s Health at King’s College London, within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. Appointed Vice Dean for Research and Impact in September 2023, she also serves as Faculty Research Integrity Champion and leads the Tribe Lab, a multidisciplinary team of scientists, doctors, midwives, and bioinformaticians dedicated to translational research on preterm birth and other pregnancy complications. Tribe earned a BSc Special Dual Honours in Physiology and Zoology from the University of Sheffield in 1988 and a PhD from the University of London (United Medical and Dental Schools) in 1992, investigating the role of dietary salt intake and sodium transport in asthma. As an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow, she researched smooth muscle intracellular calcium regulation at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA. Her career at King’s College London encompasses leading global health initiatives, including the PRECISE Spontaneous Preterm Birth Study in Kenya, The Gambia, and Mozambique, and serving as Co-Investigator on the PRECISE Network. Research specializations include uterine ion channel physiology, interactions between the female reproductive tract innate immune system and microbiome during pregnancy, biomarker discovery for preterm birth prediction, and interventions like combining breastfeeding with probiotics for infant gut health. She has secured funding from the MRC, Borne Foundation, Action Medical Research, Rosetrees Trust, Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, and Tommy’s Charity for projects such as decidual stromal cell therapy for preterm birth prevention (2026-2028) and MOBILEAir on maternal air pollution exposure (2024-2026).

Tribe’s key publications include ‘Association of adverse perinatal outcomes of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy with biochemical markers’ (The Lancet, 2019), ‘Cervicovaginal microbiota and metabolome predict preterm birth risk’ (Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2021), ‘Quantitative fetal fibronectin to predict preterm birth in asymptomatic women at high risk’ (Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2015), and ‘Rationale and design of SuPPoRT: a multi-centre randomised controlled trial’ (BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2016). Awards and honors comprise the GL Brown Lecture Prize from the Physiological Society (2016-2017), Saving Lives at Birth Incubator Award (2014), American Heart Association Personal Fellowship (1993), and Fellowship of the Physiological Society (FPhysiol). She has held roles such as Chair of the Physiological Society’s Membership & Grants Committee, Diversity/Equality Lead, member of the Preterm Clinical Study Group Executive (Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology), and Convenor of the Society of Reproductive Investigation’s Myometrium and Parturition Satellite Meeting. Tribe contributes to the UK Preterm Birth Network Clinical Database management team, established the interdisciplinary MSc in Women and Children’s Health, and has supervised numerous BSc, MSc, MD, and PhD students, fostering early career researchers in women’s health.