Vasantha Padmanabhan
Vasantha Padmanabhan, M.S., Ph.D., is professor of pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology, molecular and integrative physiology, and environmental health sciences, and director of pediatric endocrine research at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in cytogenetics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India; completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Michigan State University; and joined the faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan in 1984. Dr. Padmanabhan has served on the Animal Care, Program, Publication, and Local Arrangements Committees of the Society for the Study of Reproduction. She is on the editorial board of Endocrinology and Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and DOHAD. She was a member of the expert panel for the 2010 Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization Expert Meeting to review toxicological and health aspects of bisphenol A and a member of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Integrative and Clinical Endocrinology and Reproduction Study Sections. Dr. Padmanabhan's research is translational and mainly centers on understanding the fetal origin of pubertal and adult reproductive and metabolic disorders. Specifically her laboratory focuses on the impact of maternal exposure to native steroids (testosterone, estradiol) and environmental pollutants such as bisphenol-A in altering developmental trajectory of fetus and programming adult diseases. Utilizing integrative approaches ranging from cell and molecular biology as well as in vitro systems to whole animal physiology her research emphasis is to understand the fundamental processes controlling reproductive cyclicity in the female, the mechanisms by which native and environmental steroids program reproductive neuroendocrine and ovarian defects and insulin resistance such as that seen in hyperandrogenic disorders like Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and identify prevention and treatment strategies. She was instrumental in developing the sheep model of PCOS phenotype and is principal investigator of a program grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development directed toward identifying prevention and treatment strategies for overcoming reproductive and metabolic dysfunctions in this model.
Abstracts this author is presenting: