“Drug use and viral infections are threats to the health of pregnant women and their unborn children. Long-term use or abuse of opioids can cause birth abnormalities, psychological disabilities, and neonatal abstinence syndrome, and Zika virus infection has caused fetal malformations, particularly abnormalities in central nervous system development. As a result, the scientific community has turned its attention to the roles of the placental barrier and has explored the development of in vitro placental barrier models recapitulating human placental barrier physiology and pathology. The Seed Grant from Amnion Foundation has enabled us to initiate the development of 3D human vascularized placental barrier models providing patient-derived relevant cellular components: placental microvascular endothelial cells, placental fibroblasts, and trophoblasts. The 3D placental model will allow for the study of multicellular interactions within the dynamic microenvironment during drug treatment and viral infections. Furthermore, the high-throughput platform will provide extensive opportunities to identify better targets and drug compounds, ultimately helping researchers better predict the usefulness of therapies in patients.”

“With relevance to pressing public health issues, toxic metals such as Arsenic and Cadmium ubiquitous in the environment, and threaten the safety and health of vulnerable populations such as pregnancy women and developing children. These toxicants are harmful to many facets of human health, but notably are able to serve as developmental toxicants: during pregnancy they can cross the placenta and influence both the health of mother and the fetus. Toxicant exposure during pregnancy could result in immediate detrimental birth outcomes or later-in-life adverse health outcomes in children. It is of great public health concern that research is conducted in placental cells to further our understanding of the mechanisms of action of these toxicants. The Seed Grant from Amnion Foundation has granted us the opportunity to leverage the use of primary trophoblasts to understand the association between toxic metals exposure and placental proteomic changes. This research approach is aimed at public health improvement and is innovative in the fields of toxicology and maternal and fetal health research.”