SoCal Placenta Symposium Agenda

Symposium Introduction

9.00-9.10am: Introduction by CPD leadership

Session 1: Modeling the Placenta/Implantation Site

9:10-9:30am: Priya Pantham Ph.D. | Assistant Professor | Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences 
"Advances in Transcriptomic Profiling of Extracellular RNA in Maternal Biofluids for Biomarker Discovery in Preeclampsia"

9:30-9:50am: Shaochen Chen Ph.D. | Chair/Professor | Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering | UC San Diego 
“Bioprinting of a Placenta-on-a-chip"

9:50-10:10am: Mariko Horii M.D. | Assistant Professor | Department of Pathology UC San Diego 
“Modeling Complex Pregnancy Disorders with Patient Placental iPSC Systems”

[10:10-10:30am: 15 min coffee break]

10:30-11:20am: Keynote speaker 1 – Magda Zernicka-Goetz, Ph.D. | Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering | Department of Biology | California Institute of Technology (Caltech) 
”Modeling the Placental Implantation Site” 

11:25-11:55am: Featured Talk – Virginia Cheung Ph.D. | Postdoctoral Fellow | Department of Pathology UC San Diego 
“Progress and Promise: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Based Modeling of Early Gestation Decidual Cells”

[12:00-1:00pm:  LUNCH]

Session 2: Placenta from the Obstetric (Maternal) Perspective

1:00-1:20pm: Minhaz Sarker M.D. | Fellow | Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology UC San Diego 
”Navigating Placental Pathology Reporting for the Obstetrician"

1:20-1:40pm:  Sarah VanDijk Ph.D. | Postdoctoral Fellow | Department of Pathology UC San Diego 
“Single-cell spatial proteomic profiling of placental adaptations to maternal depression and antidepressant exposure”

1:40-2:00pm: Kathleen Fisch, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor | Department of OB-GYN, and Reproductive Sciences UC San Diego
“Placental genomic instability: developmental feature or driver of placental dysfunction?”

[2:00-2:10pm: BIO break (10 min)]

2:10-3:00pm: Keynote speaker 2 – Sherin Devaskar, M.D. | Distinguished Professor and Executive Chair | Department of Pediatrics | UCLA School of Medicine 
“Placental development as related to neonatal care” 

 
Session 3: Placenta from the Neonatologist’s Perspective

3:00-3:20pm:  Karen Mestan M.S., M.D. | Division Chief | Department of Pediatrics UC San Diego 
"Leveraging the Placenta to Transform Neonatal Intensive Care"

3:20-3:40pm:  Eniko Sajti M.D., Ph.D. | Associate Clinical Professor | Department of Pediatrics UC San Diego 
“Maternal Obesity Reprograms Fetal Monocyte Immunity Revealed by Multi-Omics”

3:40-4:00pm:  Betty Pham M.D. | Assistant Professor | Department of Pediatrics UC San Diego 
"From Placenta to Pulmonary Vessels: Understanding Neonatal Pulmonary Hypertension"

4:00-4:05pm: Concluding remarks and introduction to the poster session

4:05-5:00pm: Poster Session with wine & cheese/refreshments