MECHANISMS OF DISEASE DISEASE DEVELOPMENT

Our faculty, trainees, and research staff explore the molecular pathways influencing development, centering on the placenta’s role as a signaling interface between mother and baby. We are getting closer to understanding the signals that maintain pregnancy and initiate birth. In normal development, we are exploring regulatory molecules that indicate the completion of pregnancy. To determine why development goes awry, we are examining factors (e.g. maternal infection, heme oxygenase deficiency) that disrupt maternal-fetal communication and may lead to profound anatomic or functional consequences for mother and baby. Our findings highlight the importance of early identification and intervention in clinical settings, and our long-term goal is the creation of therapies to prevent disease development.

Developmental Immunology and Lung Injury (Prince Lab). Lance Prince’s research focuses primarily on the development of innate immunity during fetal life as it impacts health and disease in preterm infants. The laboratory studies macrophage development and lung injury, and Dr. Prince applies research findings to his clinical interest in managing and treating neonatal lung disease, specifically bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

Visit the Prince Lab website

Inflammation and Developmental Origins of Lung Diseases (Benjamin Lab). John Benjamin’s laboratory focuses on understanding how inflammation in the neonatal lung sets the stage for lung disease along the life spectrum, from bronchopulmonary dysplasia in infancy to COPD in adulthood. His laboratory is particularly interested in determining how innate immune cells alter the structural scaffold in the developing lung.

Neonatal Jaundice and Preterm Birth (Stevenson Lab). David Stevenson’s research has focused primarily on neonatal jaundice and the developmental biology of bilirubin production. More recently his laboratory has focused on the causes of preterm birth and its prevention, as Dr. Stevenson is the Director of March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford.  

Visit the March of Dimes Stanford University Prematurity Research Center website

Neurodevelopmental Disorders (Pasca Lab). Anca Pasca’s laboratory focuses on the identification of neuroprotective therapies for neonatal brain injuries related to environmental and genetic causes. She and her team take a multidisciplinary approach using human brain cells derived from stem cells and animal models. They have recently identified neuroprotectives for hypoxic brain injury, Down Syndrome, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and are targeting future clinical trials. 

Visit the Brain Therapeutics Lab website

Affiliated researchers at Stanford Medicine explore the mechanisms of disease development via the microbiome, systems immunology, metabolomics, and more.