An article from the Tuteja lab, "Transcription factor PLAGL1 is Associated with Angiogenic Gene Expression in the Placenta" was published in IJMS today! Rebekah Starks, PhD student in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, is lead author on the paper. In this article, she uses computational analyses to predict PLAGL1 as an important regulator in mouse midgestation placenta. Using a series of experiments in mouse placenta and a human placenta cell line, she demonstrates that PLAGL1 is associated with Angiogenic Gene Expression, and regulates cord formation in cell culture. Thanks also to our collaborators on the project, Laura Schulz and Kathleen Pennington. Congrats, all!

A tool from the Tuteja Lab, PlacentaCellEnrich, was published in Placenta! Ashish Jain, lead author on the paper, developed an online web interface that allows users to determine how their gene lists of interest are expressed in first trimester placenta cells. Congratulations, all!

The Tuteja Lab welcomes Dr. Arun Seetharam to the lab! Arun is a Research Scientist IV who will be a part-time member of the Tuteja lab, focusing on Bioinformatics analysis. Arun also works in the EEOB department, which is his primary appointment.

Rebekah Starks, a PhD student in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, has received a Research Excellence Award! This award recognizes graduate students for outstanding research accomplishments. Students receiving this award are thought to be academically superior, and the program recognizes only the best students that are nearing graduation. Congratulations, Bekah!

Congratulations to Ashish Jain for getting the GPSS Research Award! This is after he already received the Research Excellence Award last semester!

Divyesh Kumar did research in the Tuteja Lab when he was a high school student, over the summer of 2016. He then joined Iowa State University as an undergraduate majoring in Chemical Engineering, and pursued research in the lab of Donald Sakaguchi. Divyesh was recently named a Goldwater scholar, which is the premier undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering in the United States. Congratulations, Divyesh!

Our collaborative paper was published in PNAS today! In this study, a multiomics approach was used to investigate the effects of BPA and BPS exposure on the midgestational mouse placenta. We found that BPS, commonly used as a BPA replacement, could be equally harmful. Congratulations to all authors, and thanks to Cheryl Rosenfeld, who has expertise in understanding endocrine-disrupting chemicals, for including us in this exciting work!

The Tuteja Lab welcomes Kelby Kies to the lab! Kelby is a PhD student in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.