Research
Currently I am working on three liquid biopsy projects with different omics dataset from maternal plasma samples collected during the course of pregnancies: 1) transcriptome using cell-free mRNAs (collaboration with Illumina), 2) methylome using cell-free DNA based on the 6-letter kit from Biomodal (previously known as Cambridge Epigenetix), and 3) proteome based on the Olink platform (funded by Wellcome Leap). The overarching aim of these projects is to find clinically useful biomarkers that have predictive performance in early detection of complicated pregnancies such as preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction. I recently reported the transcriptome landscape of the human placenta in health and disease (Gong et al., Nat Commun 2021) and developed a web application using R Shiny to visualise various types of transcripts we found in the placenta (https://www.obgyn.cam.ac.uk/placentome/).
Publications
The human placenta exhibits a unique transcriptomic void.
Gong S, Gaccioli F, Aye ILMH, Avellino G, Cook E, Andrew L, Harvey L, Stephen Charnock-Jones D, Smith GCS.
Cell Rep. 2023 Jul 25;42(7):112800. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112800. Epub 2023 Jul 14. PMID: 37453066
Placental sex-dependent spermine synthesis regulates trophoblast gene expression through acetyl-coA metabolism and histone acetylation.
Aye ILMH, Gong S, Avellino G, Barbagallo R, Gaccioli F, Jenkins BJ, Koulman A, Murray AJ, Stephen Charnock-Jones D, Smith GCS. Commun Biol. 2022 Jun 15;5(1):586. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03530-6. PMID: 35705689
The RNA landscape of the human placenta in health and disease.
Gong S, Gaccioli F, Dopierala J, Sovio U, Cook E, Volders PJ, Martens L, Kirk PDW, Richardson S, Smith GCS, Charnock-Jones DS.
Nat Commun. 2021 May 11;12(1):2639. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22695-y. PMID: 33976128
