Research

Pregnancy as a Window to Shape Immune Health Across Generations

The Ding Lab studies pregnancy as a critical window that shapes immune health across generations. We focus on how the placenta senses maternal infections, inflammation, and environmental exposures, and how these early signals influence fetal immune development and long-term offspring immune function.

Placental Sensing

The placenta is not only a site of nutrient and gas exchange, but also an active immune organ that detects maternal infection, inflammation, and environmental stress. We investigate how placental immune pathways respond to these challenges and how these responses differ by fetal sex.

Immune Programming

We study how fetal immune cells are shaped during development. A major focus of our lab is to understand how prenatal immune challenges influence immune progenitors, inflammatory pathways, and tissue-specific immune development.

Long-Term Immune Outcomes

Our work connects early placental immune signals to persistent changes in offspring immune function in tissues such as blood, lung, and bone marrow. By defining these pathways, we aim to identify placental mechanisms and biomarkers that may help predict, prevent, or reduce immune-related disease risk later in life.