Environment & Reproduction Research Core
Dr. Richard Finnell, Director
Dr. Laura Mitchell, Co-Director
Dr. Thomas Spencer, Co-Director
Overview:
The Environment & Reproduction Research Core is represented by an interdisciplinary group of investigators with interests in both basic and clinical/translational research in the area of reproduction and development. The Research Core has been carefully constructed to integrate basic research that encompasses the continuum from gamete biology, embryonic stem cells, and conceptus development, implantation, placentation to embryonic/fetal/postnatal development. Members of this Research Core have outstanding research programs in reproductive biology focused on: a) the biology of implantation/placentation (Bazer, Burghardt, Johnson, Newton, Spencer, Westhusin, Wu), embryo/fetal development (Amendt, Finnell, Martin, Mirkes, Schwartz, Winzer-Serhan), and postnatal development (Dees, Miranda, Sohrabji, Spencer, Wu). Basic Research members of this Core investigate how environmental agents impact reproduction, including structural and behavioral aspects in animals and humans. Through inter-core collaborations with members of the Environment & Cancer Research Group, they extend these investigations to understand environmental agents that impact circadian aspects of reproduction. The basic research group provides a strong foundation in cellular signaling and signal transduction for translational research targeted to the study of gene-environment interactions that lead to an increase in the frequency of adverse reproductive outcomes.
Translational research is focused along the border region of Texas and other environmentally compromised areas of the world, including the Shanxi Province in Northern China. Translational research members of this Research Core (Brender, Burghardt, Carozza, Finnell, Mitchell, Sharkey, Vannucci) focus on the causes of adverse reproductive outcomes and the development of strategies for their prevention. It includes community-based researchers from the School of Rural Public Health (SRPH) with an emphasis on environmental epidemiology and translational research as well as strong intercore collaborations with biostatisticians from the Environment & Cancer Research Core. Finally, three members of this Core (Burghardt, Finnell, Mitchell) contribute to the highly integrated, multidisciplinary research of the Superfund Project.
Contact:
Richard Finnell, Ph.D., Director
Institute of Biosciences and Technology
2121 W. Holcombe Blvd
Houston, TX 77030
Tel: (713) 677-7777
Email: rfinnell@ibt.tamhsc.edu
Highlights:
- Endogenous retroviruses regulate periimplantation placental growth and differentiation - PDF
- Livestock reproductive research could better human life - PDF