Our Research Center
The Microchimerism, Human Health and Evolution Project aims to cultivate and revitalize the microchimerism community
To fully understand the complexities of microchimerism, we will integrate and develop novel state-of-the-art technologies and approaches to characterize the cross-talk between mother and offspring. Our overarching ambition is to create a ‘microchiome atlas’ to understand the distribution of microchimeric cells in mothers and offspring across multiple generations and define the mechanisms of microchimerism cell transfer and tolerance.
The Team
Our interdisciplinary group provides expertise across multiple disciplines to help bridge the gap between different fields of microchimerism research.
Thomas Kroneis
Co-Principle Investigator
Kroneis is a leader in rare cell analysis at the single cell level and a specialist regarding techniques necessary to sample, unambiguously discriminate and characterize single haplo-identical (i.e., maternal and fetal) cells.
Amy Boddy
Co-Principle Investigator
Boddy is is a human biologist and evolutionary theorist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her work integrates maternal/fetal conflict theory, evolution of the placenta and the consequences of fetal microchimeric cells in maternal health and disease.
Michael Eikmans
Investigator
Eikmans is an immunologist and a specialist in molecular biology. He has a long- standing history in molecular and immunologic research in transplantation. His work focuses on the detection of microchimeric cells and their clinical relevance in health, disease, and transplantation outcomes.
Frank Schildberg
Investigator
Schildberg is an immunologist and currently Research Director of the Clinic for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery of the University Hospital Bonn. His research is focused on the clinical aspects and applications of basic immunological research.
Henderson Cleaves
Investigator
Cleaves is a Professor at the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, as well as a member of the program in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His work focuses on analytical and computational chemistry, with a special emphasis on large data sets and the use of advanced analytical tools to detect rare molecules within especially complex mixtures.
Tiffany Pan
Postdoctoral Scholar
Pan is a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara. Her research interests are broadly in evolutionary tradeoffs of reproduction and immune function and their implications for health and fertility in contemporary human populations. She is currently collaborating with Cottage Health Research Institute in Santa Barbara on a project to better understand changes in immune function during pregnancy with a focus on the dynamics of microchimerism