Ripla Arora PhD

Ripla Arora, PhD

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Assistant Professor

EDUCATION/DEGREE INFORMATION

Ripla Arora received her Bachelors and Masters degree in Biochemistry from the University of Delhi, India. She went on to receive her PhD degree in Genetics and Development from Columbia University, New York where she studied the role of T-box transcription factors in vascular morphogenesis of the allantois (umbilical precursor) and epithelial branching in the lung. She completed her postdoctoral work in the Department of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at University of California, San Francisco where she developed novel 3D imaging and quantitative modeling of the murine uterus during preimplantation stages and the cycling human endometrium. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology within the College of Human Medicine and a member of the Institute for Quantitative Health Sciences and Engineering at Michigan State University.

RESEARCH INTEREST

Abnormalities during the establishment of pregnancy can have impacts far downstream, including miscarriage, placental insufficiency, intra-uterine growth restriction, preeclampsia and preterm birth. Early events of mammalian pregnancy, although crucial for normal development, are poorly understood. Owing to the small size and transparent nature of the early embryo, development from fertilization to blastocyst stages has been extensively documented by imaging. On the other hand deeper understanding of the 3D architecture of the embryo's uterine environment and the uterine glands has lagged behind. Combining the strengths of developmental genetics, 3D imaging, computational image analysis and gene expression analysis, my laboratory will establish how hormones influence the uterine luminal and glandular epithelium to modulate receptivity and implantation.

RESEARCH TOPICS

-Uterine Biology

-Maternal Fetal interactions

-Developmental Genetics

-Early embryo development

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Nguyen SL, Ahn SH, Greenberg JW, Collaer BW, Agnew DW, Arora R, Petroff MG (2021). Integrins mediate placental extracellular vesicle trafficking to lung and liver in vivo. Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 18;11(1):4217.

Flores D, Madhavan M, Wright S, Arora R (2020). Mechanical and signaling mechanisms that guide pre-implantation embryo movement. Development. 147(24):dev193490.

Marquardt RM, Kim TH, Yoo JY, Teasley HE, Fazleabas AT, Young SL, Lessey BA, Arora R, Jeong JW (2021). Endometrial epithelial ARID1A is critical for uterine gland function in early pregnancy establishment. Faseb J. 35(2):e21209.

Hossaini Nasr S, Rashidijahanabad Z, Ramadan S, Kauffman N, Parameswaran N, Zinn KR, Qian C, Arora R, Agnew D, Huang X (2020). Effective atherosclerotic plaque inflammation inhibition with targeted drug delivery by hyaluronan conjugated atorvastatin nanoparticles. Nanoscale. 12(17):9541-9556.

Jefferson WN, Padilla-Banks E, Suen AA, Royer LJ, Zeldin SM, Arora R, Williams CJ. Uterine Patterning, Endometrial Gland Development, and Implantation Failure in Mice Exposed Neonatally to Genistein (2020). Environ Health Perspect. 128(3):37001