Abigail Blatchford (2nd Year DPhil Student)

Luba Maslej (1st Year MRes Student) 

Maeve Janecka (1st Year DPhil Student) 

Iona Glidden (1st Year DPhil Student)

Former group members

Dr Helena Rodriguez-Caro

Dr Mengni Shen

Dr Ana Kisovar

Dr Zhixing Jin (Postdoctoral researcher)

Dr Yifan Wang

Gia Han Le

Biography

I completed my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds, then moved to the University of Oxford to the Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, and obtained a DPhil working with Professors Xiaoning Xu and Gavin Screaton. I joined the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2007, to work on Immunology in Pre-eclampsia with Professors Ian Sargent and Chris Redman. My work focused on studying placental derived factors that contribute to maternal systemic inflammatory changes in pregnancy and pre-eclampsia. A key aspect of this work was studying the interactions between syncytiotrophoblast microvesicles and exosomes with immune cells in pregnancy.

I research immunity in the female reproductive tract, with specific focus on understanding immunological events that lead to the establishment of pregnancy. The endometrium is a highly dynamic mucosal tissue and immune cells not only provide host responses against pathogens, but they are essential for embryo implantation, placentation and pregnancy success. I also research endometriosis and adenomyosis, and seek to understand the mechanisms behind infertility and pain in these patients.  

Cellular mechanisms behind lesion formation and pathology in endometriosis and adenomyosis.

Women who suffer form endometriosis have severe pelvic pain and have both an increased risk of autoimmunity and fertility issues, we are studying the endometrium and lesions in women with endometriosis and adenomyosis, to identify cellular differences in patients. For further information click here.  We are growing organoid cultures of lesions and endometrium to further understand disease mechanisms.  

Endometrial immune cells and their role in recurrent pregnancy loss. 

We have identified changes to immune cell subpopulations in RPL, using RNA sequencing, flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry to investigate transcriptomic and phenotypic changes. Our work on Treg in RPL can be read here https://rdcu.be/cyd7N

The PIP Study - Pre- IVF Immune Profiling Study (PIP)

The immune cellular landscape of peri-implantation endometrium remains poorly defined in Recurrent Implantation Failure (RIF), Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (RPL) and subfertility.  This study aims to define normality and identify changes to T, B, NK, NKT cellular proportions in women suffering from these pathologies. 

Extracellular Vesicles in reproductive Health

Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) range in size from 50nm – 2000nm in diameter, they are released by cells and are enriched in specific cargoes (for example, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids and metabolites), reflecting their cell of origin, and can deliver these to recipient cells. I am researching EVs and their role in reproductive health, for example they are present in seminal fluid and we have shown they influence the female reproductive tract.

I welcome speculative enquiries to join my group, in the first instance please email; for research into endometriosis please fill in this form 

Please also consider applying for this MRC iCASE award in collaboration with Accession Therapeutics -Development of a novel endometriosis treatment using a targeted viral immunotherapy.