Current Research and Scholarly Interests
Our laboratory has had a long-standing interest in the role of normal and abnormal endometrial development and its relevance to implantation, miscarriage, fetal growth, and endometriosis in humans. We also have studied mechanisms underlying ovarian follicle development and steroidogenesis.
We study the roles of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system and the Wnt family in human endometrium, the role of the IGF system in human trophoblast invasion and function, and have numerous ongoing studies on functional genomics of human reproductive tissues.
We have pursued gene discovery in the window of implantation in endometrium from normal women and in women with endometrial disorders, including endometriosis, repetitive miscarriage, and unexplained infertility. We have also performed molecular profiling of human endometrium across the menstrual cycle and in these disease states. These studies have resulted in identification of markers of diseases of the endometrium and potential targets for therapies.
Our lab has also conducted molecular profiling of human placental trophoblasts at different gestational ages and in pregnancy disorders, as well as human oviduct under different hormonal conditions and disease states.
In addition, we study mechanisms underlying endometrial differentiation in response to steroid hormones, placental hypoxia and fetal growth, and cross-talk between the placenta and the maternal decidua, as well as putative endometrial stem cells and their relevance to endometrial regeneration and endometrial disorders.
Our studies in the ovary focus on the IGF system, using a mouse model in which PAPP-A has been deleted by homologous recombination.
