Preeclampsia Research Funded to Investigate Genetic Targets to Develop Potential Therapeutics

Wendy Kuohung, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, received the  2023 Peter Joseph Pappas Research Grant from  the Preeclampsia Foundation at the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine 43rd Annual Pregnancy Meeting. The grant is valued at nearly $100,00.

Kuohung’s project Characterization of apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) variant-overexpressing cell lines for high-throughput drug screening, is designed to potentially accelerate discovery of therapies for preeclampsia by designing placental cell lines that express variants of the APOL1 gene for drug screening. Previous research has found that these variants in the APOL1 gene increase the risk of developing preeclampsia when present in the fetus and also alter levels of certain proteins in cells when expressed. The study aims to design a special assay using these cell lines to measure changes in protein levels after treatment with different compounds.

Kuohung received her medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine, completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston Medical Center (BMC), and conducted fellowship training in reproductive endocrinology and Infertility at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  In addition to her School responsibilities she serves as division director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at BMC,

Named for the infant son of preeclampsia survivor Lauren Pappas and her husband Clement, the Peter Joseph Pappas Research Grants program award grants totaling up to $200,000 each year. The ultimate goal of the program is to drive research that will eliminate the delivery of pre-term babies as an intervention for severe preeclampsia, HELLP syndrome, and related hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.