Christentze Schmiegelow

Christentze Schmiegelow serves as an Associate Professor and Part-time lecturer in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the Centre for Medical Parasitology (CMP), University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Her research primarily investigates the association between malaria/anaemia and poor pregnancy outcomes, with special focus on altered foetal growth trajectories assessed through transabdominal ultrasound. She leads the FOETALforNCD project, a preconceptional and pregnancy cohort study in Tanzania, and serves as co-investigator in the EDCTP-funded IMPROVE study examining intermittent preventive treatment for malaria in pregnancy across Malawi, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Dr. Schmiegelow's research interests center on maternal-fetal health in resource-limited settings, particularly examining how malaria exposure, antimalarial drug resistance, and antibody levels affect foetal development. Her work integrates clinical obstetrics with epidemiological methods to address critical gaps in understanding pregnancy complications in malaria-endemic regions. She has developed expertise in ultrasound assessment of foetal growth and longitudinal cohort studies in African settings.

Her recent publications reveal a strong focus on vulnerable newborns, neonatal mortality risk factors, and the impact of maternal conditions like anaemia and gestational diabetes on pregnancy outcomes in Tanzanian populations. The research spans multiple disciplines including maternal-fetal medicine, infectious disease epidemiology, and global health implementation science.

Dr. Schmiegelow has presented her work at numerous international conferences including the GAIA Consensus Conference in Washington, Developmental Origins of Health and Disease in South Africa, and the Kilimanjaro PhD Symposium in Tanzania. She has received training in Good Clinical Practice, advanced obstetric emergency management, and ethics of health research in resource-poor settings.

As an educator, she has co-supervised 4 PhD, 10 master's, and 1 bachelor's students. Fluent in Danish (native), English, and with intermediate Swahili proficiency, she maintains strong research connections with Tanzanian institutions.