Skip site navigation
University of Maryland Division of Research
Who We Are Capabilities Partnerships Resources News
Analytical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Service & Research Center Biomolecular Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility Biosciences Cores: Genomics, Imaging, and Flow Cytometry BioWorkshop Brain & Behavior Institute - Advanced Genomic Technologies Core CALCE Test Services and Failure Analysis Laboratory Center For Innovative Biomedical Resources (CIBR) Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Daikin Energy Innovation Lab DLAR Imaging Core Exposome Small Molecule Core Facility Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel Herschel S. Horowitz Center for Health Literacy KIT-Maryland MEG Lab Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute (MFRI) Maryland NanoCenter Maryland Neuroimaging Center Mass Spectrometry Facility Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility (NBRF) Surface Analysis Center The Laboratory for Biological Ultrastructure The University of Maryland Center for Health Equity The University of Maryland Prevention Research Center X-ray Crystallographic Center (XCC)
Africa Through Language and Area Studies (ATLAS) Anti-Black Racism Initiative Effective and Equitable Weather Forecasting in a Changing Climate with Machine Learning Encuentros: A University-Community Partnership to Mitigate the Mental Health Crisis for Latino Immigrant Youth Fostering Inclusivity through Technology (FIT) Helping Our Bodies Clear Respiratory Infections The Maryland Safe Drinking WATER Study Modeling the Evolution of Avian Influenza Viruses Music Education for All Through Personalized AI and Digital Humanities Observing Wildfires Through UAVs and Fire Imaging Technologies Programmable Design of Sustainable, All-Natural Plastic Substitutes Racial and Social Justice Research-Practice Partnership Collaborative Remediation of Methane, Water, and Heat Waste Seizing Opportunities: Social Capital, Businesses, and Communities Using Machine Learning to Measure and Improve Equity in K-12 Mathematics Classrooms Water Emergency Team
Accurate, Equitable, and Transparent Genetic Ancestry Inference Advancing Environmental Justice By Evaluating Climate-Ready Urban Street Trees In Historically Redlined Neighborhoods AFTER: A Hospital Violence Intervention Program For Youth Victims of Gunshot Injury An Innovative Intervention to Help Asian American Families Cope with Racism and Mental Health Difficulties Bridging the Gaps in Satellite Observations of Earth Systems to Support Climate Monitoring and Prediction Climate Change and Political Conflict Climate Mitigation and Land-Use Digital Equity Mapping Research and Training Program Establishing a Role for Psilocybin in Frontal Lobe Function Fetal Mammary Stem Cell Programming and Hormone Dysfunction Forecasting Acute Malnutrition for Anticipatory Action Genetic and Lifestyle Risk Factors of Accelerated Brain Aging in Severe Mental Illness How Does Statistical Learning Interact with Socioeconomic Status to Shape Literacy Development? Human Rights Politics and Policies: Lessons from Latin America Increasing Sustainability, Accessibility, and Equity in Urban Mobility with A Self-driving E-Scooter Increasing Participation of Minorities and Women In STEM Through Sports Performance Analytics Research Market Design, Energy Storage, and Interconnection to the U.S. Power Grid On-board Energy Harvesting for Long-endurance Earth Observation UAVs Promoting Youth Mental Wellbeing in Rural Honduras by Engaging Teachers as Catalysts Relating Attitudes on Democracy to Attitudes on Race and Ethnicity An Innovative Approach to Remove Emerging Organic Contaminants from the Environment Role of Mitochondria Dynamics in Opioid Addiction Towards an Early Warning System for Increased Probability of Community Infection by SARS-Cov-2 Variants Understanding the Impact of Wind on Fire Dynamics in Mass-Timber Compartment Visualizing Urban Flooding Due To Climate Change
Search
Who We Are Capabilities Partnerships Resources News

Research Study Seeks to Improve Understanding of Fetal Mammary Stem Cell Programming and Hormone Dysfunction

September 30, 2024

Assistant Professor of Animal and Avian Sciences Andrew Schiffmacher (College of Agriculture and Natural Resources) is leading a Grand Challenges Grant supported project that seeks to improve understanding of how negative external influences irreversibly alter fetal mammary development and subsequent mammary function. This study will provide mechanistic insight into how hyperandrogenism, and ultimately aberrant fetal mammary programming in general, contribute to primary milk insufficiency and other breast pathologies manifesting in adulthood.

Recently, this project has engaged with another Grand Challenges supported study. In response to the discovery that H5N1 bird flu is infecting dairy herds and people working with these herds, Dr. Schiffmacher began developing a research collaboration with fellow Grand Challenges Grant awardee Dr. Andrew Broadbent (Team Project Grant: Modeling the Evolution of Avian Influenza Viruses) to better understand how H5N1 and other viruses infect cattle and are shed from mammary epithelial cells. In line with the current objectives to develop new in vitro human mammary models, Dr. Schiffmacher and his team have created nine bovine fetal mammary lines that they are in the process of validating. The goal is to select the lines that differentiate into all of the adult mammary epithelial cell types and culture them in 2D and 3D mammary organoid systems. The team will then share these in vitro systems with Dr. Boadbent for H5N1 assays and future grant applications. 

Dr. Schiffmacher gave a talk at the American Dairy Science Association 2024 Annual Meeting this past June in West Palm Beach, FLA, to present our early data and obtain feedback from the dairy science community. 

Project team member Suchana Ghimire, an M.S. student, presented early data at the Society for Developmental Biology's 83rd Annual Meeting this summer in Atlanta Georgia. 

For more information, visit: https://research.umd.edu/fetal-mammary