Ripla Arora is an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology within the College of Human Medicine and is the Chief of the Division of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology in the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on embryo uterine interactions at the time of implantation and uterine development.

Russ White:Ripla Arora is my guest. She's an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology within the College of Human Medicine at MSU, and she's the Chief of the Division of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology in the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering, better known as IQ. Her research focuses on embryo uterine interactions at the time of implantation and uterine development. Ripla, welcome to the show.

Ripla Arora:Thank you, Russ, and I'm so glad to be here and so glad to meet you.

White:Tell us what happens in the Arora Lab, what does your research entail? 

Arora:We're primarily interested in understanding how the embryos interact with the maternal environment to find an ideal space for attachment. And then we're interested in how the three dimensional structure of the mother guides the embryo to find a good site for attachment. And most importantly, what happens when this embryo ends up in a less than ideal space. How does it affect the pregnancy, the fetal growth, and how does that cause poor pregnancy outcomes? The basic idea in our lab is that the embryo forms from the sperm and the egg as a single cell and then undergoes multiple rounds of divisions to form a structure called the blastocyst which is what is going to attach to the maternal structure. At this stage of development, the embryo is about 100 micrometers in dimension. Scientists have developed really amazing methodologies to image this tiny embryo. And it also helps that the embryo is quite transparent at this stage so it helps in the imaging process.