The Wernimont lab is focused on unraveling the mechanisms through which alterations in maternal nutrient availability impact placental development and contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes. By combining cutting-edge static and isotope tracing metabolomics with targeted gene disruption in trophoblast cell models, we define how mitochondrial nutrient flux regulates metabolic, epigenetic, and transcriptional reprogramming events during trophoblast differentiation. The long-term goal of this work is to identify novel strategies to improve pregnancy health and childhood outcomes in pregnancies complicated by diabetes.  

Using placentas from healthy and gestational diabetes pregnancies, we are investigating how perinatal diabetes impacts trophoblast differentiation and function with a particular emphasis on how metabolism impacts transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of differentiation events.  Additionally, we use data from the University of Minnesota Obstetric Measures Database (UMOMs) to investigate how differences in care impact outcomes in perinatal diabetes.