I am a PhD student in the lab of Dr. Margherita Turco investigating the physiology of the human endometrium, the lining of the uterus. The endometrium is a very dynamic tissue that undergoes multiple changes during the menstrual cycle. It can regenerate upon complete shedding with menstruation and differentiate in order to prepare itself for pregnancy. As a Master’s student in the lab, I investigated the signals that drive the differentiation of the endometrial epithelium towards the ciliated and secretory cell populations. Now, as a PhD student my main interest is to unravel the mechanisms that control the regeneration of the human endometrium. I am using 3D organoid cultures of the human endometrium, which can recapitulate the in vivo tissue and respond to the ovarian hormones, estrogen and progesterone. I am employing a series of functional assays, genomic technologies (such as single cell RNA sequencing) and genetic editing with CRISPR/Cas9 to identify the stem/progenitor cells in the endometrial epithelium.
