From Lab to Life: The Forgotten Organ That Built You

Stat: 1/3: Placental-related disorders, such as miscarriage and pre-eclampsia, affect around a third of human pregnancies.

Story: The placenta is a temporary yet vital organ that can have long-term effects on the lives of babies and mothers. But it’s often discarded and remains an understudied part of pregnancy. 

In this episode of our “From Lab to Life” series, Geetu Tuteja describes how her lab at Iowa State University is working to better understand the placenta’s functions and why placental disorders start. She also discusses how her background in genomics and computational biology informs the way she conducts her research.