Professor
Center for Reproductive Health Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine
My research focuses on maternal-fetal immunobiology relevant to obstetrical disorders. I use my expertise in both cellular immunology and reproductive immunology and biology to improve our understanding of disease mechanisms and develop strategies for early diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, and prevention of pregnancy complications, specifically preterm birth. I established my laboratory in the Wayne State University's Perinatal Initiative, which was created to foster the translational portion of the Perinatology Research Branch (PRB), an intramural branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), NIH. Within PRB/NICHD/NIH, I was the Deputy Project Site Manager for Translational Research, overseeing all translational research operations of the PRB/NICHD/NIH. My laboratory employs a team science approach by combining conventional and cutting-edge immunology methodologies with maternal-fetal medicine, placental pathology, single-cell omics, microbiome analysis, and biomarker discovery. In addition to intramural funding from the NICHD/NIH, I received extramural funding from the NIBIB/NIH and Ferring Pharmaceuticals. I recently joined the faculty in Obstetrics and Gynecology & Pathology and Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. Since then, I have secured funding from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the NIAID/NIH, and my work has been published in over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts. My passion for research is matched by my commitment to advocating for the inclusion of women and minorities in science.
