Yuji Murata Endowment Award 2015-2016 awarded to Prof. Vajira H.W. Dissanayake

The Yuji Murata Endowment Award for 2015-2016 awarded by the Asia Oceania Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology was awarded to Prof. Vajira H.W. Dissanayake for the research work carried out by his team and reported in the paper titled ‘The microbiome of the placenta in preeclampsia supports the role of bacteria in the multifactorial aetiology of pre-eclampsia’ published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research 2015;41(5):662-9. doi: 10.1111/jog.12619. Epub 2014 Dec 10.

This award is awarded to the best paper in the field of foetal and maternal medicine published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research (JOGR) in 2015 and 2016. The other members of the research team were Dr. Ranmali Amarasekara, Prof. Hemantha Senanayake, Vidya Jayothi Prof. Rohan W. Jayasekara. 

This paper described the discovery of bacterial colonies inside the placenta of a subgroup of women with pre-eclampsia for the first time in the world. Pre-eclampsia is a devastating condition that results in the severe maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality around the world.