Research
Our research interests span developmental and molecular neuroscience, as well as reproductive biology. We aim to understand early life determinants of cognition and neuropsychiatric disease.
How do adverse exposures during pregnancy and in early life remodel brain development? Specifically, we seek to understand how inflammation, nutrition, and stress alter the molecular underpinnings of neurodevelopment, using both mouse models and human brain tissue.
The maternal brain undergoes extraordinary plasticity during and after pregnancy. What are the determinants of this physiologic transformation? How does stress perturb maternal plasticity and predispose women to post-partum neuropsychiatric disorders?
The placenta mediates maternal-fetal cross-talk and immunoregulation in fetal development. We are interested in mechanisms by which the placenta regulates fetal brain development, including hormonal and immune mechanisms.
The control of protein production, trafficking, and destruction are fundamental to cell health. Disruption in protein homeostasis is a hallmark of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, we seek to understand molecular mechanisms underlying mRNA translation in the brain under normal and disease states.
The immune system closely regulates normal and abnormal neurodevelopment. We are interested in understanding neuro-immune interactions in the context of preterm and term brain injury.
Despite progress in improving the survival of premature and critically ill newborns, there is great need to develop interventions to protect the newborn brain and improve neurodevelopmental outcomes. We are leading early stage clinical trials to test novel therapies for neuroprotection. This includes a Phase I trials of remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) and metformin for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).