Women In STEM: Investigating The Superpowers Of The Placenta

At Lena, we believe that the future of women's health needs will be built and shaped by women. Our bodies have been understudied, misunderstood and deprioritised for far too long and we've felt that cost firsthand. Thankfully, the tide is shifting. Across research labs, clinics, classrooms, and boardrooms, women in STEM are rewriting the story, and many of them are doing it because they lived it first.

These are women who have translated their pain and frustration into action and change, making a point of centring lived experience in what they do. This series is our way of honouring them.

Can you introduce yourself and what you're currently working on?

My name is Ione and I’m a human physiologist and developmental biologist interested in how the body interacts with its environment. I have a specific interest in women’s health, which is a passion that stems from the inherent lack of female-centric research.

I’m finishing up the first year of my PhD where I’m working in Dr Norah Fogarty’s research group investigating the role of tryptophan metabolism in early placental development. My project involves both wet- and dry-lab work (aka in the lab and on the computer) and is a partnership between King’s College London and A*STAR in Singapore.

What does the current women's health landscape look like in your country?

I feel positive about the UK’s current women’s health landscape, but it would be naïve of me to say that we are in a great position. As women's health becomes increasingly distinguished from the historical medical default, we are beginning to see meaningful improvements in access to female-specific care, alongside a growing movement of women who are confidently educating themselves and others about their health, rights, and wellbeing.

Yet, we are still far from truly understanding women’s health, owing to the beautifully complex physiology females have. I also worry about the role social media plays in dictating women’s health trends.

Women’s health research is, I believe, still in its infancy, with an inherent lack of gold-standard randomised controlled trials that form the foundation of evidence for medical treatments and dietary recommendations. We are only recently agreeing on definitions for female disorders, such as PMOS (DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)00717-8), which is a tremendous step forward to help with diagnosis, but it shows how much further we must go to formulate evidence-based, safe and tailored recommendations for female health disorders.

How does your work contribute to this space?

To answer this question, I’d like to briefly introduce two key players: the placenta and tryptophan. The placenta was traditionally recognised as a pregnancy by-product – essentially, it was overlooked, understudied and misunderstood (applicable to most women’s health research).

Yet, the placenta is the control centre in pregnancy, functioning in nutrient and waste exchange, maternal-foetal communication, and as a protective structural and immunological barrier between the mother and baby. Evidence suggests some pregnancy complications, which affect 1 in 10 pregnancies, may arise from poor development of the placenta – akin to building a house on dodgy foundations. Such complications also induce lifelong detrimental health effects on the baby and mother. 

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid (derived from the diet and a building block of life) and is broken down into a diverse range of metabolites (chemical by-products). Tryptophan metabolites are essential for key processes including cell development, immunity and cardiovascular function; these are pivotal during pregnancy.

My work aims to improve our understanding of the contributing factors (i.e., tryptophan) in placental development, which will hopefully one day help inform dietary recommendations during pregnancy and (blue sky thinking) advance the development of a therapy for placenta-related pregnancy complications. I’m motivated by the intergenerational impact my work may have. People don’t know enough about the superpower of the placenta, and spreading knowledge about this overlooked organ is another important part of my work.

What do you think are the biggest challenges for women's health right now?

I attended a PhD symposium in early June where there was a panel discussion on communicating science in an era of public mistrust. In science communication, we struggle with:

1. Translating the jargon into accessible language
2. Deciphering between misinformation (an unintended or misunderstood interpretation of information) and disinformation (malicious spreading of incorrect information)
3. The lack of trust in science/scientists that has arisen from the natural evolution of scientific evidence and click-bait headlines.

These challenges hold true for communicating women’s health research, especially since it is a newly evolving field during a time when scientific communication is poorly regulated on social media. Dr Rachel Denham (@rachskitchensync_) posted a video on Instagram recently discussing how we should be communicating science on social platforms.

Linking research articles to posts increases transparency and enables those interacting with the information to make their own interpretation. Though we as researchers need to address the language barriers in science, these practices will contribute to increasing trust and hindering mis- and dis-information.

What is one thing you wish women knew about their gynaecological health?

I’m passionate about the placenta, so I will speak about a topic that blows my mind: the developmental origins of health and disease. This is an evidence-based theory that the environment exposed to the baby during pregnancy can influence its health not only immediately, but decades down the line (DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-801383-0.00001-3). For example, over- or under-nutrition during pregnancy can increase the risk of cardiometabolic disease in adults (DOI: 10.3390/cells15040366). To me, it shows the interplay of the body and its environment, and the intimate connection between mother and baby that lives on. Importantly, it’s not just limited to the mother - the health of the father during conception is also a contributing factor.

Our thanks to Ione Halford Garcia. If you would like to learn more about Ione, you can visit her LinkedIn page here.

If you enjoyed this series or would like to contribute towards our next interview, please reach out at rachel@lenacup.com and we'd love to learn more about you and your work!