Professor Guiying Nie is a molecular biologist specialising in female reproduction. She is currently heading the Implantation and Pregnancy Research Laboratory in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT university in Melbourne. Her research has been devoted to understanding the early events of embryo implantation and the subsequent development of a functional placenta; one aspect has been discovering key factors of placental development and their clinical implications in the management of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia. With over 20 years of research experience in the field, her work is internationally recognised, and her research has been supported continuously by NHMRC as well as industry and international funding bodies. She is a Fellow of the Society for Reproductive Biology, has served on the executive committee of the Australian and New Zealand Placental Research Association, and acts as an Associate editor for the journal of Reproductive Sciences.