Monica Dave, B.A.

Utilizes in vitro cellular models of the human endometrium and primitive syncytium to better understand developmental senescence and to find potential targets for infertility research

Peri-implantation failure of fertilized human embryos is common, yet poorly understood. To study this stage of development in vivo is unethical, leading to a black box concealing the reasons why many couples struggle to pass the implantation stage of development even when in vitro fertilization controls for other factors. To address fundamental questions about the mechanisms of implantation that might also underlie embryo mortality, human-based in vitro models are necessary, but currently lacking. I am working on a 3D model of the human endometrium using patient-derived tissue.

Primitive syncytium (PrSyn) is an extra-embryonic trophoblast cell type which emerges from the trophectoderm of the blastocyst during implantation. PrSyn exhibits a senescence transcriptional signature, though little has been described about developmental senescence since senescence is typically associated with aging. Our lab seeks to utilize our induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived model of trophectoderm, which contains PrSyn, to better understand the molecular regulation of the PrSyn senescence program. The long-term goals of these projects are to model aspects of implantation so that it can be investigated further, and to understand the role senescence has in implantation.

MONICA DAVE ON ORCID