About us

The Myatt lab is dedicated to helping prevent and overcome adverse pregnancy outcomes. This includes maternal health, fetal growth and development, and long term health of the offspring. Adverse pregnancy outcomes studied include preterm birth, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes. A major focus is on placental structure/function in relation to these conditions and how they impact fetal growth. Pregnancy outcomes are impacted by the sex of the fetus, pregnancies with a female fetus generally having fewer adverse outcomes than those with a male fetus. Hence, we consider sexual dimorphism in all aspects of placental function and how this relates to the outcome. Experimental approaches utilized include primary human trophoblast culture, mitochondrial respiration assays, transcriptomic, proteomic,  lipidomic, and metabolomic approaches. The long term objective is the development of therapeutic approaches to improve pregnancy outcomes.