Emily Adhikari
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Syphilis during pregnancy can cause stillbirth, early (preterm) delivery and newborn death. Syphilis is caused by the corkscrew-shaped bacterium Treponema pallidum.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
syphilis
Treponema pallidum
pregnancy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- Define types of placental tissue damage in pregnancies with syphilis and correlate them with Treponema pallidum burden and newborn outcomes, compared with gestational age–matched healthy controls.
- Link cell type–specific placental gene expression, especially in CD8+ T cells and fetal Hofbauer macrophages, to tissue abnormalities, preterm delivery and congenital syphilis.
- Connect maternal syphilis stage and treatment timing to placental immune changes, to explain why some infected pregnancies end in preterm birth.
More about the research
Pathologists have described the placental damage seen in untreated cases. Examples include inflammation of the placenta's finger-like villi, rich in CD8 T cells (immune cells that kill infected cells), and extra Hofbauer cells, which are fetal macrophages in the placenta. But little is known about how the infection changes gene activity in placental immune cells, or how this varies with disease stage and treatment timing.
Why it matters
Doctors do not know exactly how syphilis, or its treatment during pregnancy, leads to preterm birth. Linking placental damage and immune gene activity to stage, treatment timing and newborn outcomes could help explain stillbirth, preterm delivery and congenital syphilis. That knowledge may eventually inform the care of pregnant patients with syphilis and their babies.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Mana M Parast
University of California-San Diego, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether villitis of unknown etiology (VUE) linked to fetal growth restriction has a distinct cellular profile of chronic immune responses and trophoblast or endothelial damage, using mass cytometry on banked placental tissue.
Jeffrey Klausner
University of Southern California, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether chlamydia, gonorrhea or trichomoniasis detected in stored third-trimester vaginal specimens is linked to higher preterm birth risk, and whether risk differs by type of infection.
Christiana Smith-Anderson
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Microbiology & Immunology
Profile gene expression in maternal and fetal cell types within placentas from pregnancies with HIV, with SARS-CoV-2 or with no infection, using single-cell spatial transcriptomics, which maps gene activity while keeping cells in place in the tissue.
The school
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: 40 labs on PI Pages, $869M a year on research, 86 research doctorates a year.
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