Yearly Archives: 2018

International HG Awareness Day 2018

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This year, we are celebrating HG Awareness all month long because the HER/UCLA/USC team has identified the first cause of HG! That is truly groundbreaking and only happened due to your donations and participation! Let’s spread the message far and wide that no longer can others erroneously claim HG is a psychological disorder! See all the activities on our FB Events page. Here is a summary:

  1. Thunderclap – shout the message simultaneously!
  2. Facebook Live on May 15
  3. Meetup with another HG family
  4. Donate to get more answers
  5. Use our Facebook frames
  6. Share our posts on social media
    Donate for_ResearchEducationAwareness

Genetics Study Q&A

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What is the HG breakthrough we co-published in Nature Communications?

This study provides scientific evidence linking 2 genes, GDF15 and IGFBP7, to HG. These genes provide the instructions to build the proteins GDF15 and IGFBP7 in the human placenta during pregnancy. The proteins are known to be important in the development of the placenta and in controlling appetite. We have done additional work presented at the ICHG (vimeo.com/260389622) showing that not only are these genes linked to HG, but also, the proteins are abnormally high in the blood from patients hospitalized with HG.
GDF15 ucla 3-18 two genes crop Continue reading →

Exciting News: Press Release

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HER Foundation helps UCLA, USC and 23&Me link debilitating pregnancy illness to two genes

           FINALLY A BREAKTHROUGH FOR women suffering from the severe pregnancy illness, hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). Many people remember Princess Kate Middleton being hospitalized during her first pregnancy due to the severity of the disorder. However, other women affected by the pregnancy illness have limited family size, quit their jobs or sadly felt so desperate due to the debilitating illness that they terminated wanted pregnancies. Many HG women describe the illness as something no one can truly understand unless they have endured it themselves. Instead of the joy every pregnancy should bring, HG women spend most of the 9 months suffering in silence unable to eat or simply keep water down.

The HER Foundation, researchers at UCLA and USC, and 23andMe, Inc. conducted the first genome-wide analysis of Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) and identified two genes associated with HG, which was published this week in Nature Communications. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03258-0). Continue reading →