The Golos Laboratory
Faculty > Thaddeus G. Golos
Thaddeus G. Golos
Professor, Comparative Bioscience, Obstetrics and Gynecology
golos@primate.wisc.edu
Organ System/Disease Focus
Implantation biology, placenta, embryo
Aligned Research Focus
Basic stem cell science, in vitro models of embryo implantation and development
Research Description
We use human and rhesus embryonic stem cells and rhesus embryos to study primate placental organogenesis. The first differentiation event in mammalian development is the specification of the trophectoderm lineage that will give rise to the placental trophoblasts, and the placenta is the first functional fetal organ.
Our central hypothesis is that the formation of the placenta relies on an interplay of extrinsic signals and intrinsic transcriptional regulatory pathways. We have developed systems in which to study placental morphogenesis by probing cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions with human ES cell co-culture systems and in vitro differentiation paradigms, and novel rhesus monkey embryo and ES cell in vitro and in vivo implantation models.
Selected References
Douglas, G.C., C.A. VandeVoort, P. Kumar, T.C. Chang, and T.G. Golos, 2009. Trophoblast stem cells: Models for Investigating Trophectoderm Differentiation and Placental Development. Endocrine Reviews. 30:228-40.
T.G. Golos, Bondarenko G.I., Dambaeva, S.V., Breburda, E.E., and M. Durning. 2010. On the role of placental major histocompatibility complex and decidual leukocytes in implantation and pregnancy success using non-human primate models. Int. J. Dev. Biol. 54:431-443.
T.G. Golos, Giakoumopoulos, M., and M.A. Garthwaite. 2010 Embryonic stem cells as models of trophoblast differentiation: progress, opportunities and limitations. Reproduction. 140(1):3-9.
Giakoumopoulos, M., Siegfried, L.M. Dambaeva, S.V., Garthwaite, M.A., and T.G. Golos. 2010 Placental-derived mesenchyme influences chorionic gonadotropin and progesterone secretion of human embryonic stem cell-derived trophoblasts. Reproductive Sciences. 17(9):798-808.
Home, P., Saha, B., Vivian, J.L., Dutta, D., Ray, S., Gunewardena, S., Yoo, B., Larson, M., Wolfe, M.W., Petroff, M., Gallagher, P.G., Schulz, V., White, K.L., T.G. Golos, Rozner, A.E., Durning, M., Behr, B., and Paul, S. Altered sub-cellular localization of transcription factor TEAD4: An evolutionary conserved mechanism to regulate first mammalian cell-lineage commitment. PNAS. In press.