Assistant Professor
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Dr. Ruchira Sharma is board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and in Maternal-Fetal Medicine. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Sharma is cares for women with all aspects of a high-risk pregnancy. In addition, she specializes in obstetric ultrasound and prenatal diagnosis including amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS). She also cares for women with twins and triplets, and performs twin vaginal deliveries including breech extractions. During residency and fellowship training, her primary research focus was to understand the biology of labor dysfunction in patients with obesity. Labor dysfunction has been identified as one of the causes of high cesarean rate in this subgroup. To study this, she developed a myometrial tissue bank and conducted in vitro experiments on full term human myometrial samples. We demonstrated that human pregnancy myometrium is a target for select adipokines (hormones released by adipose tissue) and obesity is associated with decreased expression of oxytocin receptor in term human myometrium. During fellowship, she continued the translational lab work at Feinstein Research Institute, Manhasset, NY. She studied the effects of key obesity related metabolites and adipokines on oxytocin receptor expression and downstream signaling in human myometrial cell lines. The results may help us in identifying pathways that reduce myometrial contractility in obese patients with an eventual goal of reducing high cesarean rates through optimized labor management.
In addition to the translational work, her research interests include maternal cardiovascular disease and finding ways to optimize outcomes during pregnancy, inter-pregnancy, and long term. She participated in developing a unique ‘Cardio-Obstetrics – Women’s Heart Health Program’ during her fellowship, and is in the process of developing a Collaborative Cardio-Obstetric program at her current institution.
