📢We're recruiting!📢 We're looking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated PhD student to join the lab of @cathwilliamson.bsky.social at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social under co-supervision of Vasso Terzidou and myself, to study potential of bile acid therapies for preterm birth. Apply by Feb 28th!

🎉 New paper alert 🎉 Our latest paper, "Maternal diet-induced hypercholanemia alters gut microbiota and metabolome in adult female Western diet-fed offspring", led by @carolineovadia.bsky.social and @cathwilliamson.bsky.social, is out now in Experimental Biology and Medicine!

Editor's Choice Paper by @jmschoonejans.bsky.social @ozannelab.bsky.social 'Balancing maternal benefits and cardiovascular risks of metformin during pregnancy' now includes a video short by Josca www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2aB... Read paper - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Interesting new paper from the @ozannelab.bsky.social showing maternal iron homeostasis, not placental dysfunction, is associated with fetal hypoxia at e13.5 in obese mouse pregnancy physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...

Interesting new mouse study comparing different interventions for HFD-fed #pregnancy. Lifestyle interventions (nutrition most strongly) improved placental morphology, feto-placental vascularisation and growth restriction, while #metformin did not www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Interesting! This work shows greater contribution of liver insulin resistance in Nordic vs South Asian women with past GDM - consistent with our finding that serum bile acids (correlating with HOMA-IR, reflecting hepatic insulin sensitivity) were increased in European but not SA women with #GDM

Clare M. Reynolds of ucddublin.bsky.social offers this #Perspective on cardiovascular trade-offs of metformin use in pregnancy based on research by Schoonejans et al. (2025)✍️ 🔗 physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...

🎓 EDITOR'S CHOICE 🎓 Schoonejans and colleagues now show that when female mice are given metformin in addition to an obesogenic diet during #pregnancy, their offspring display various adverse impacts on #cardiovascular health in a sex-specific manner. 📜 physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...

My poster looking at cardiovascular effects of prenatal #metformin exposure is up #DOHaD2025 (PS3.002)! Come by during the session this morning or find me during the day 🐭🫀🤰 Again, thanks to @physoc.bsky.social & @socendocrinology.bsky.social for making it possible to travel to Argentina!

My first poster is up today at #DOHaD2025! Come by poster PS1.006 to chat about paternal influences on offspring fat and energy balance 🐁 Huge thanks to @socendocrinology.bsky.social & @physoc.bsky.social for the travel grants that made presenting here possible!

🌟 We made the cover🌟 Our image of a female aorta exposed to #metformin in utero is on the cover of @jphysiol.bsky.social. The paper was also the Editor's Choice! Interested? I'm presenting this next Wednesday at #DOHAD2025 in Buenos Aires (PS3.002). Come say hi or connect on here! #DOHaD

New paper alert! We found that serum #bile #acids were increased in women from the HAPO study diagnosed with #GDM based on fasting glucose, confirming our previous findings in another European cohort tinyurl.com/BAinGDM @bjog.bsky.social

I was very glad to present my @tommyscharity.bsky.social -funded work on #bile #acids in #preterm #labour today at the IRDB internal work in progress seminar. Thanks for the invite and for all the interesting questions ! @imperialmdr.bsky.social

Women with #GDM with high ursodeoxycholic acid levels in the blood following #UDCA treatment are more likely to have fasting glucose within recommended ranges, suggesting potential benefit in GDM management🤰 sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @cathwilliamson.bsky.social

"Treated Mothers, Troubled Hearts: Cardiovascular Trade-Offs of #Metformin Use in #Pregnancy", a title that reflects the difficult considerations of the metformin debate. A great Perspective on our recently published work! physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @jphysiol.bsky.social

Our new paper showing sex-specific adverse #cardiovascular outcomes of prenatal #metformin exposure in a mouse model of diet-induced glucose intolerance is out now in @jphysiol.bsky.social ! 🐁❤️ ♂️♀ Find it here shorturl.at/VKqjD (in collab with @ozannelab.bsky.social & Giussani labs) #DOHaD

We had @tommyscharity.bsky.social visit our lab last week! It was a pleasure to take you round our labs and talk about the exciting #preterm #birth projects we work on at @imperialmdr.bsky.social. An impression of the day: www.tiktok.com/@tommyschari...

Two posters from the group today! I'm showing #paternal #programming of sWAT in male offspring of hypercholanaemic dads (3022); Madeleine reports on the impact of HFD & intermittent cold exposure on adipose tissue/liver in a mouse #MASLD model (3013) @keystonesymposia.bsky.social #KSObesity25 #DOHaD

Alice is representing the Williamson group today with her poster 2029 on how #maternal #obesity and hyperglycemia is associated with reduced neonatal brown adipose tissue response to #cold exposure! Come have a look! @keystonesymposia.bsky.social #KSObesity25 #BAT #DOHaD

The sun was out on the mountain today while we snowshoed all the way from Alberta to British Columbia! A glorious welcome to Banff, ready for @keystonesymposia.bsky.social #KSObesity25 tomorrow!

I'm thrilled to finally announce that I have been awarded an Imperial College Research Fellowship! I am excited to join @mrc-lms.bsky.social later in 2025 to study novel treatments for gestational diabetes and start my career as an independent researcher🥂 @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social #GDM #DOHaD

New research on a topic that has intrigued me for a decade: what happens to maternal cells in breastmilk? Prior research suggested these cells might get integrated into infant organs (!!!) - but this new work shows something different... faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/...

In honor of Maternal Health Awareness Day, I want to bring your attention to the national crisis we are facing with maternal health in the US. If we don’t act now, countless women will suffer. I won’t give up advocating for women’s cardiovascular health. journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Perturbed white adipose tissue expansion with inflammation/oxidative stress in pregnant mice following bile acid overload - exciting new work from my colleagues in the Williamson group! #WAT #pregnancy #ReproSky #MedSky #BioSky physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.14814...

🚨PhD opportunity in my lab🚨 I am thrilled to announce that I’m offering a fully funded PhD position in the prestigious BBSRC MIBTP (Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership) program! 💡Project Focus: The pregnant brain and the effects of high fat diet👇🏼 warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa...

Fat tissue retains a ‘memory’ of obesity through cellular transcriptional and epigenetic changes that persist after weight loss, which might increase the chance of regaining weight, according to a study in Nature. go.nature.com/48ZTVfg

New(ish) on here, so a brief introduction! My scientific background is in obesity, white adipose tissue (WAT) biology, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and therapeutic interventions in pregnancy (especially offspring effects). Here's an overview: