Dr Ionel Sandovici

My current work is focused on the following main areas of research:

• Using novel in vivo mouse models, I’m exploring: the trafficking of placental hormones to maternal organs under physiological and obesogenic environments and their role in maternal adaptation to pregnancy; the trafficking of placental hormones to fetal organs and their role in fetal development;
• Using novel in vivo mouse models that involve transgenes active specifically in the maternal germline, paternal germline or paternal epididymis, I’m exploring the molecular/epigenetic mechanisms involved in the intergenerational/ transgenerational inheritance of metabolic traits;
• Using a combination of in vitro, in vivo and in silico approaches, I’m searching for novel regulators of adipogenesis and the epigenetic mechanisms that regulate their expression, with a particular emphasis on the role of enhancer-promoter interactions;
• I am assessing the impact of age and environment on the transcriptome, methylome and lipidome of murine and human adipocytes