My areas of interest includes cardiovascular diseases that occur during pregnancy, in particular, preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a severe hypertensive disease that only develops during pregnancy and is the leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. I have been investigating this disease by studying different animal models in which we alter different facets of physiology to yield a similar phenotype to the disease. This phenotype includes hypertension and fetal growth retardation. From these models, we have generated exciting data characterizing detrimental alterations in maternal blood vessel function.
Although most of my research has focused on pregnancy the impact of these studies goes well beyond pregnancy. For example, increased understanding of the normal and pathological changes that occur during pregnancy can help: clarify hormonal changes that occur as a result of menopause, increase understanding of cardiovascular sex differences, and may help in the development of future therapies for hypertension. Because of this I am also interested in pathophysiological changes that may occur to cause hypertension in the non pregnant setting. This includes (but is not limited to): genetics, metabolic alterations, and anatomical changes.