Dr Gabrielle Crombie

I am a postdoctoral research associate with an interest in how perinatal environments shape life-long health. During my PhD, I studied how maternal and neonatal stress programmes structural, molecular and behavioural neurodevelopmental outcomes in the offspring, with a focus on neuroendocrine dysfunction in the mother, placenta and fetus. As a postdoctoral researcher, I have been studying the effect of maternal obesity and metabolic dysfunction on placental and fetal physiology, examining the mechanisms that prime long term cardiovascular health, and neurodevelopmental outcomes.

My current role examines how placental hormones remodel maternal metabolism across pregnancy and in the long-term after pregnancy. Using genetic mouse models of placental endocrine malfunction, I aim to establish which organs are vulnerable to pregnancy and age-related metabolic dysfunction via placentally-derived persistent changes in the maternal system. I am using metabolic and physiological phenotyping of the animal model paired with high-throughput molecular analysis of target systems.