Anna Penn, MD, PhD

Stanley James Associate Professor of Pediatrics Chief, Division of Neonatology Department of Pediatrics

Columbia University New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital

Host(s): Carol Mason (Faculty) 

Neuroplacentology: How the placenta shapes the developing brain

The placenta is a fetal endocrine organ that secretes a large number of neuroactive factors, including steroids, that play critical roles in brain development. The study of the placenta-brain axis represents an emerging research area dubbed “neuroplacentology”. Recent studies from our lab have highlighted the critical role of placental steroids in shaping specific brain structures and behaviors. Placental dysfunction is highly associated with abnormal fetal brain development and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. Using placenta-specific genetic manipulation in a mouse model, we demonstrated that a key placental neuroactive hormone-- allopregnanolone (ALLO), a potent GABAA receptor agonist-- is needed for normal cerebellar development and that its loss contributes to long-term neurological dysfunction, specifically autism-like behaviors in male offspring. Furthermore, ALLO or GABAAR agonists can rescue much of this impaired behavior and the cerebellar changes seen. Our ongoing work to mechanistically define the links between placental neurosteroids and elevated autism risk in mice and humans may allow use of placental neurosteroid production as an early biomarker of increased neurodevelopment risk and provide new therapeutic strategies aimed at decreasing this modifiable risk.

Relevant Publications:

Placental endocrine function shapes cerebellar development and social behavior

Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

This event will be in-person only, open to Columbia University Affiliates
Speaker Location: Jerome L. Greene Science Center, Kavli Auditorium, 9th Floor Lecture Hall

Tuesdays@10 is a signature Zuckerman Institute initiative that aims to expose researchers at all levels to high-quality science and stimulate scientific discourse. The speakers featured in this series represent various fields and techniques in neuroscience, and include invited guests of the Columbia Neuroscience Seminars, the Zuckerman Institute's Local Circuits Affiliates Program, and other special seminar series through a combined, collaborative effort of one or more of the following: Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Center for Precision Psychiatry, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science. 

More information and a full schedule can be found here.