Cole McCutcheon

A schematic showing the implications of integrative omics studies of placental biology in non-traditional animal models on different fields. The image shows a ring with four quadrants, these representing the farm industry, biomedical research, conservation and pregnancy disorders. Within the ring are icons representing placenta, organoid, scRNA-seq, developmental trajectory and spatial transcriptomics.

Probing the evolutionary diversity of placental development: Francesca Soncin explores a @plosbiology.org study that provides a spatial transcriptomic characterization of the porcine #placenta, developing a new swine trophoblast #organoid model 🧪 Paper: plos.io/47jf3yd Primer: plos.io/3HZodFB

Three-dimensional confocal image of a swine trophoblast organoid immunostained for ZO-1 (green) and actin (purple), with nuclei counterstained using DAPI (grey). ZO-1 highlights tight junctions at the apical borders in the center of the organoids, while actin outlines cellular architecture, revealing organized epithelial polarity within the organoid structure. Image credit: Cole McCutcheon, Duke University.

In vitro model of porcine placental development: @crm110.bsky.social &co develop a swine trophoblast #organoid model that mimics in vivo #trophoblast diversity & gene expression, providing a platform for studying #placental biology & #MaternalFetalInteractions @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/47jf3yd

Advancing comparative placentation through spatial transcriptomics and organoid models More work is needed to characterize the evolutionary diversity of placental development in eutherian mammals. This Primer discusses a recent PLOS Biology study that provides a rich spatial transcripto...

Thank to Dr. Francesca Soncin for writing this great primer on our paper! Check it out now on @plosbiology.org

Defining cellular diversity at the swine maternal–fetal interface using spatial transcriptomics and organoids Understanding porcine placental development has been hindered by the lack of in vitro models that reflect its cellular heterogeneity. This study develops a swine trophoblast organoid model that mimics...

We hope this paper serves as a critical resource to help improve our understanding of swine reproductive biology. This project was so much fun to work on and I couldn’t ask for a better team of collaborators to get this exciting story out the door.

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Additionally, we used spatial transcriptomics to fully characterize the pig placenta in full detail, providing the most comprehensive analysis of the pig placenta to date. (We also made a cool app that you can use to explore the pig placenta in detail: coynelab.shinyapps.io/myshinyapp/)

What we did:
We made mini pig placentas, which are called swine trophoblast organoids, which function very similarly to the pig placenta. This means we can use the organoids to understand why pigs lose their pregnancies and hopefully improve breeding programs to prevent product loss.

The problem:
The pig placenta is very hard to study in the lab because we don’t have any way of doing experiments without using an entire pig….which is pretty tricky to sneak into the lab.

You may ask, why pig placentas?
The pork industry is dependent on successful breeding programs. Unfortunately, 10-15% of pig pregnancy’s fail, which is approximately $10 billion in lost product. Many of these losses occur because the placenta is dysfunctional, triggering a spontaneous abortion.

Super excited to share my latest paper examining the pig placenta!

We believe that this critical hypothesis generating dataset sets the stage for future studies aimed at understanding the interplay between antibiotic persistence and GBS MVs, with the ultimate goal being to increase IAP effectiveness.

We show here that IAP alters the production and composition of Group B Streptococcus membrane vesicles. Our data further demonstrate that MVs contain known antibiotic targets, which theoretically could serve as antibiotic decoys, thereby decreasing antibiotic mediated killing of GBS.

We have previously demonstrated that the fetal and neonatal pathogen Group B Streptococcus can persist after intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) even in the absence of antibiotic resistance genes. The underlying mechanisms allowing for this persistence remains unclear.

Impact of antibiotics on membrane vesicle production in Group B Streptococcus | Microbiology Spectrum GBS colonization during pregnancy can lead to invasive disease in neonates. Although antibiotics are given to GBS-positive pregnant patients during labor, some of these individuals remain colonized wi...

Fresh off the press! (Ok two days ago but I missed it…🤷‍♂️). Super proud to have contributed to this great paper led by Macy Pell and Shannon Manning.

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Super excited to share this new preprint from our lab describing the Jamaican fruit bat placenta! 🦇

Here we analyzed the bat placenta by snRNAseq, compared it to the human and murine placenta to identify unique features, and developed bat placental & decidual organoids for use as models!

Cellular and Immune Adaptations at the Maternal-Fetal Interface in Bats Bats maintain pregnancy despite extended gestation relative to other small mammals, high fetal investment, recurrent pathogen exposure, and the metabolic demands of flight. These physiological extreme...

🚨 New pre-print! 🚨 Super excited to be a part of this cool project led by Allyson Caldwell, @becca-casazza.bsky.social and Henry Yang! Who would have thought the bat placenta would be so cool?! 🦇

Special Issue: Reproductive Health Our latest Special Issue showcases research in reproductive biology and medicine.

Research on the development, physiology, and pathophysiology of reproduction is of great importance for understanding fertility and health.

Explore the latest in our new #ReproductiveHealth Special Issue.

Group B Streptococcal Membrane Vesicles Induce Proinflammatory Cytokine Production and Are Sensed in an NLRP3 Inflammasome-Dependent Mechanism in a Human Macrophage-like Cell Line Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a major cause of fetal and neonatal mortality worldwide. Many of the adverse effects of invasive GBS are associated with inflammation; therefore, understanding bacterial...

Starting off 2025 strong with a new publication! #GBS @acspublications.bsky.social

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Placenta-tropic VEGF mRNA lipid nanoparticles ameliorate murine pre-eclampsia - Nature A platform for mRNA lipid nanoparticle delivery to the placenta to treat pre-eclampsia is shown to improve fetal and maternal health in mice and has potential clinical applications in obstetric disorders and women's health.

A potential new mRNA-based therapy for pre-eclampsia is demonstrated in a mouse study published in Nature. The method involves targeted delivery of mRNA to the placenta to restore normal maternal blood pressure and improve foetal health. 🧪