Dr Geraldine Jowett
- Next Generation Fellow (2026)
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About
Dr Geraldine Jowett is a Next Generation Fellow at the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research, hosted by the McGovern group. She completed her B.A. in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and a Wellcome Trust PhD in biomaterials and immunology at King’s College London with Dr Eileen Gentleman and Dr Joana F. Neves. Supported by a Schmidt Science Fellowship, a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship, and a College Research Associateship at St John’s College, Cambridge, she then conducted postdoctoral research to investigate the biophysics of mammalian germ cell development at the Gurdon Institute and the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience (PDN), sponsored by Prof. Azim Surani and Prof. Ewa Paluch.
Research
My research interrogates how tissue-scale cell–cell interactions instruct cell fate across mammalian reproduction. During my PhD, I focused on modelling mucosal immune microenvironments and was then awarded postdoctoral fellowships to unravel the mechanobiological cues that govern primordial germ cell development and sex determination within the gonadal niche. To deconstruct these complex developmental transitions, my work combines stem cell biology, biophysics, and bioengineering, establishing reductionist 3D co-culture platforms that capture how distinct cell types reciprocally shape one another’s identity and function.
As a Next Generation Fellow at the Loke CTR, I am applying this approach to the human endometrium, focusing on uterine natural killer (uNK) cells. To capture native mucosal complexity, my research focuses on developing immunocompetent endometrial systems that integrate these specialized, tissue-resident immune cells. By reconstructing this dynamic microenvironment, I aim to uncover how local cues regulate uNK cell maturation and uterine remodelling, shedding light on the early cellular interactions that govern placental development, unexplained infertility, and disorders of pregnancy.