Seminar Series

October 20, 2025
“The Human Preeclamptic Developmental Niche: Defining placenta-derived mechanisms of developmental lung and gut injury in preeclampsia.”
Elizabeth Taglauer, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

November 17, 2025
“Mama, what’s for dinner?” An Overview of How Food is Medicine may enhance systems of maternal health care delivery
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Vanessa N. Robinson, DrPH, PhD
Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine

January 12, 2026
“HOPE - Healthy outcomes from positive experiences”
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Robert Sege, MD, PhD
Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine

April 7, 2026
"Unveiling molecular determinants of myometrial dysfunction in obesity"
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Gregory Kirschen, MD, PhD
Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow

April 13, 2026
"From Womb to Brain: Maternal Psychological Distress and the Developing Brain"
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Josepheen Dr Asis-Cruz, Md, PhD
Associate Research Professor of Pediatrics and Research Director for Imaging and Analytics at the Developing Brain Institute (DBI), Center for Prenatal, Neonatal, and Maternal Health Research at Children's National Hospital

May 22, 2026
"The Skeletal Muscle Endothelium and Glucose Control"
Philip W. Shaul, MD
Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Pulmonary and Vascular Biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center

June 11, 2026
"Female Reproductive Health in Space"
Begum Aydogan Mathyk, MD
Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Clinical Fellow in the Department of OBGYN at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine

December 16, 2024
“Heavy Metal Exposure in Asian Populations: Implications for Maternal and ChildHealth”
MyDzung Chu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Tufts Medical Center

May 5, 2025
“Improving the Translational Value of Prenatal Opioid Models.”
Elizabeth Byrnes, PhD
Associate Chair at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

June 3, 2024
“Cervical remodeling in term and preterm birth”
Mala Mahendroo, PhD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

May 6, 2024
“The indirect effects of improving placental function with a nanoparticle gene therapy on fetal developmental programming”
Rebecca Wilson, PhD
University of Florida

February 26, 2024
“Considering the parental-placental-fetal trio on the metabolic consequences of gestational diabetes”
Amy Valent, DO, MCR
Oregon Health & Sciences University

January 8, 2024
"Time to Consider a FIRI Branch of MIRI?- How Chronic Paternal Stress Leads to Stress Related Behaviors Specifically in Female Offspring- Involvement of the Placenta??"
Larry Feig, PhD 
Tufts University of School of Medicine
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December 4, 2023
“Precision medicine in obstetrics: addressing inequities with big data and team science”
Kathryn Gray, PhD 
University of Washington
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October 23, 2023
"Understanding early life immunity in health and disease"
Kinga Smolen, PhD
Children’s Hospital

June 6, 2023
“Advancing the Biology and Drug Discovery of the Natriuretic Peptide System for Cardiovascular Disease: Moving Beyond ANP and BNP”
S. Jeson Sangaralingham, MS, PhD
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

May 8, 2023
"Potential roles of mitophagy in the development of gestational diabetes mellitus"
Haijun Gao, PhD
Howard University College of Medicine
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March 20, 2023
“Intranasal non-opioid interventions to reduce opioid drug seeking and relapse”
Emmanuel N. Pothos, PhD
Tufts University School of Medicine

February 6, 2023
“Tissue Engineering the Inflammatory Origins of Endometriotic Disease”
Juan Gnecco, PhD
Tufts University

November 14, 2022
"Next Generation Sequencing of Extracellular RNA in Maternal Urine to Identify Biomarkers in Preeclampsia”
Priya Pantham, PhD
University of California, San Diego

October 3, 2022
“Placental nutrient sensing in the Programming of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in the Offspring”
Emilyn Alejandro, PhD
University of Minnesota

September 9, 2022
“Systems biology approach to understanding immune homeostasis and dysregulation at barrier sites”
Yelizaveta Konnikova, MD, PhD
Yale University School of Medicine

May 2, 2022
“Black Women and Maternal Health Disparities: Addressing The Role of Racism”
Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, PhD, MPH, CHES
Tufts University School of Medicine

April 28, 2022
"Understanding Maternal Immunity Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic"
Andrea Edlow, MD, MSc
Massachusetts General Hospital
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March 21, 2022
"Air pollution exposure during pregnancy and maternal/child health"
Abby Fleisch, MD, MPH
Maine Medical Center

February 14, 2022
"Substance use in pregnancy: How do next generation products impact the next generation?"
Laura Stroud, PhD
Brown University

January 24, 2022
"Prenatal influences on neurodevelopment: Considering mechanisms and potential for preventive intervention"
Alice Graham, MS, PhD
Oregon Health & Science University
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October 18, 2019
Osamu Samura, M.D. Ph.D.
“Current status and problem of non-invasive prenatal testing in Japan”
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
The Jikei School of Medicine, Tokyo

November 15, 2019
“Computational biomechanical models of human Pregnancy – evaluating the risk of preterm birth and the biomechanical function of the pessary”
Kristin M. Myers, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University

December 13, 2019
"The role of MIS in ovarian and uterine development: applications to infertility"
Patricia Donahoe M.D. and David Pepin Ph.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital

January 17, 2020
“Why does my mother's pre-pregnancy body mass index matter”
Carmen Monthe-Dreze, MD
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

June 14, 2019
Families in Context: Using Program Evaluation to Understand Systems of Care
Melissa Colón, Ph.D. and Jessica Goldberg, Ph.D.
Tufts Interdisciplinary Evaluation Research
Eliot Pearson Child Study and Human Development Department, Tufts University

May 17, 2019
“Stress and postpartum depression: lessons from preclinical models”
Jaime Maguire, PhD
Kenneth and JoAnn G. Wellner Professor
Tufts University School of Medicine

April 12, 2019
“The Potentially Important Role(s) of Early Cleaving Human Embryos in Their Destiny."
Ann Kiessling, PhD
Director, Bedford Research Foundation

March 15, 2019
"Gut microbes and cardiometabolic risks: the story of Akkermansia muciniphila"
Carlota Dao, Ph.D.
Energy Metabolism Laboratory
Jean Mayer USDA
Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging

February 8, 2019
“Human milk for preterm infants:  benefits and challenges”
Mandy Brown Belfort, MD MPH
Director of Clinical Research
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine

January 18, 2019
"Fetal-to-placental signaling and timing of parturition"
Bingbing Wang, MD, PhD
Director of Perinatal Translational Research Laboratory
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

December 7, 2018      
“Clarifying autism diagnoses with saliva-based testing"
Steve Hicks, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Penn State College of Medicine

November 16, 2018    
“On moms, microbes & metabolism: How the ‘First 1000 Days’ Influence obesity and metabolic disease risk”
Kartik Shankar, PhD, DABT 
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 
Director, Metabolic Programming Lab, Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center                     

October 19, 2018
“Neonatal Sepsis: A view from the SOFA”
James L. Wynn, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Pathology, Immunology and Experimental Medicine
University of Florida College of Medicine, Division of Neonatology

September 21, 2018
“Maternal obesity and offspring health: Opportunities to improve outcomes”
Sarbattama Sen, MD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Brigham and Women's Hospital