November 1, 2024

11am - noon
BSRB, room 483

CRSHE Seminar Series with Dr. Veena Sangkhae
Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, UCLA

"Iron Pathobiology in Pregnancy"

Talk Description: I will discuss endocrine regulation of iron homeostasis during pregnancy and how perturbations in these regulatory mechanisms can result in adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Speaker Bio: I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I completed my undergraduate studies at the UCSD, majoring in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. My undergraduate and subsequently graduate research was performed in the lab of Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky who discovered the hormone thrombopoietin, which regulates the production of platelets. My graduate thesis was focused on The Role of Thrombopoietin Signalling in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms. During my PhD, the lab moved twice so I went from UCSD to Stony Brook University and then to University of York in the UK where I completed my PhD in 2015. I moved back to LA and completed my post-doc in the laboratory of Drs. Elizabeta Nemeth and Tomas Ganz here at UCLA, who discovered the hormones hepcidin and erythroferrone, critical regulators of iron homeostasis. In 2021 was awarded a K01 to study iron and pregnancy and became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care. I’m currently a member of UCLA Center for Iron Disorders.