Research
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
Publications
Sandovici I, Fernandez-Twinn DS, Campbell N, Cooper WN, Sekita Y, Zvetkova I, Ferland-McCollough D, Prosser HM, Oyama LM, Pantaleão LC, Cimadomo D, Barbosa de Queiroz K, Cheuk CSK, Smith NM, Kay RG, Antrobus R, Hoelle K, Ma MKL, Smith NH, Geyer SH, Reissig LF, Weninger WJ, Siddle K, Willis AE, Lam BYH, Bushell M, Ozanne SE, Constância M. Overexpression of Igf2-derived Mir483 inhibits Igf1 expression and leads to developmental growth restriction and metabolic dysfunction in mice. Cell Rep. 2024 Sep 15;43(9):114750. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114750.
Sandovici I, Fernandez-Twinn DS, Hufnagel A, Constância M, Ozanne SE. Sex differences in the intergenerational inheritance of metabolic traits. Nat Metab. 2022 May;4(5):507-523. doi: 10.1038/s42255-022-00570-4.
Sandovici I, Georgopoulou A, Pérez-García V, Hufnagel A, López-Tello J, Lam BYH, Schiefer SN, Gaudreau C, Santos F, Hoelle K, Yeo GSH, Burling K, Reiterer M, Fowden AL, Burton GJ, Branco CM, Sferruzzi-Perri AN, Constância M. The imprinted Igf2-Igf2r axis is critical for matching placental microvasculature expansion to fetal growth. Dev Cell. 2022 Jan 10;57(1):63-79.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2021.12.005.
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