Massachusetts General Hospital is home to the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the U.S., with nearly $1.3 billion in research operations in 2023. The Mass General Research Institute comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments.
But what do each of these groups do? Learn more about the individual labs and centers in our #ThroughTheMagnifyingGlass series, where we take a closer look at the teams that make up the Mass General Research Institute.
In this post, we are highlighting the Edlow Lab run by Andrea Edlow, MD, MSc!
Dr. Edlow is an MGH Research Scholar 2024-2029, a Physician Investigator at the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School.
What research do you perform, and why is it unique?
Our lab studies maternal, placental and fetal immunity and how maternal exposures such as viral infection, substance use and immunization shape fetal development.
We also study the impact of fetal sex on maternal, fetal, and child immunity and its outcomes. To do this, we build unique cohorts of pregnant individuals, linking their clinical information with biosamples collected during pregnancy and lactation.
Our work is highly multi-disciplinary and collaborative. Our lab has two large pregnancy biorepositories, the COVID-19 Biorepository, and BUMP (Biorepository for Understanding Maternal Immunity and Pregnancy). Both biorepositories have the goal of investigating maternal, placental and fetal immunity across complicated and uncomplicated pregnancies.
Together with colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we established one of the largest COVID-19 Pregnancy Biorepositories in the country enrolling nearly 1300 participants, and gaining key insights into maternal and placental immune responses to viruses and vaccines.
Experiments performed with the samples generously donated by patients has led to knowledge that we hope can be used to optimize maternal and neonatal health.
Because pregnant participants were initially excluded from initial COVID-19 vaccination studies, our research filled a critical knowledge gap in providing information for pregnant individuals about the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.
We also collaborate with the Perlis Lab at the Center for Genomic Medicine to investigate the impact of COVID-19 in pregnancy on fetal brain development and offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes, using samples from the COVID-19 Pregnancy Biorepository.
Meet the Team
Researchers show a placenta patient sample.
Researchers show a placenta patient sample.
Lab members return from collecting patient samples after a delivery.
Lab members return from collecting patient samples after a delivery.
The members of the Edlow Lab.
The members of the Edlow Lab.
We are fortunate to have an amazing team of dedicated technicians, research coordinators, post-doctoral fellows, research scientists and faculty investigators who work around the clock to enroll participants, collect samples from clinic visits and deliveries (which sometimes happen in the middle of the night!), perform experiments, analyze data and present and share our findings with the scientific community and the public.
Each of our team members is driven by the translational potential of our research and is passionate about advancing maternal and child health.
We are passionate about finding answers to questions that are important to pregnant individuals and their families – this motivates everything we do!
To have the patient samples to answer these questions, our team members actually hold a pager every night of the week in case participants in our studies are delivering- we then come in and collect placenta and cord blood samples.
What publication is really important to your ongoing research?
In October 2021, our lab had two articles in the same edition of Science Translational Medicine that together highlight our primary focus on maternal immune responses to viruses and vaccines: Maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection elicits sexually dimorphic placental immune responses, and COVID-19 mRNA vaccines drive differential antibody Fc-functional profiles in pregnant, lactating, and nonpregnant women.
The first article demonstrated that the placental immune response to maternal viral infection with SARS-CoV-2 differed depending on the sex of the fetus, and that mothers carrying male fetuses had lower levels of protective antibodies and transferred fewer protective antibodies to male fetuses.
These findings also could have implications for fetal brain development in utero, which is another key focus of our laboratory.
The second paper demonstrated that pregnant, lactating, and non-pregnant individuals had subtle differences in their response to the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, and these differing responses have implications for both maternal and neonatal protection.
The concept that pregnancy impacts the response to vaccines highlighted the critical importance of studying vaccines in pregnant people and is a major motivation for our current studies with the Human Immunology Project Consortium.
Lab members prepare kits to collect patient samples for an upcoming delivery.
Lab members prepare kits to collect patient samples for an upcoming delivery.
How does your research apply to everyday people's lives?
The immune system during pregnancy is everchanging, as it is tasked with the complicated job of tolerating the growth of the semi-foreign fetus, while simultaneously vigorously protecting the pregnant individual and fetus from infection.
Profiling the immune system across each trimester of pregnancy will increase understanding of how pregnant individuals respond to infection and vaccination.
We hope such knowledge can be used to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality from immune-mediated pregnancy complications, and ultimately reveal optimal vaccination strategies and new clinical interventions to maximize protection for both the pregnant individual and the neonate.
What is something you wish everyone knew about the research you perform?
Vaccination in pregnancy is safe and effective!
To learn more about the Edlow Lab, check out their website.
About the Mass General Research Institute
Massachusetts General Hospital is home to the largest hospital-based research program in the United States. Our researchers work side-by-side with physicians to develop innovative new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease.
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