Groten, Tanja - assoc. RG 81

Our research group “Translational Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine” focuses on how maternal endothelial and metabolic health shapes placental function, pregnancy outcome and long-term cardiometabolic risk in mothers and their offspring. We view pregnancy as a physiological stress test that reveals pre-existing vascular and metabolic vulnerabilities. These factors influence both acute complications such as preeclampsia, placental dysfunction, fetal growth restriction or overgrowth, and disease trajectories across the life course.

We investigate how endothelial and metabolic dysfunction arises from the interaction between baseline maternal health and cumulative stressors, including metabolic imbalance, antiangiogenic, inflammatory and hypoxic challenges. To address this, we combine well-characterized clinical cohorts with detailed vascular and metabolic phenotyping, advanced molecular profiling, mechanistic cell culture models and preclinical mouse studies.

Our goal is to identify molecular and functional signatures of resilience and vulnerability, define causal pathways of maladaptation, and develop a multimodal index that enables mechanism-based prediction and individualized prevention of pregnancy complications and long-term cardiometabolic disease in mothers and their children.

For more information, please check AG Groten.

• Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC)
• Department of Obstetrics, Jena University Hospital, Jena Germany. (Part time position to finish the DFG project LOOP-study)