University of California-San Diego · BiologyPlacental Health Research Lab
Mariko Horii · La Jolla, California
Research Focus
Dr. Mariko Horii's lab at UC San Diego focuses on understanding preeclampsia, a serious condition during pregnancy that can have severe consequences for both mothers and their babies. By modeling placental defects with stem cells, the lab aims to identify the underlying mechanisms of this disease and improve treatment options. Their research seeks to establish better diagnostic tools and therapeutic targets to enhance prenatal care and health outcomes.
preeclampsiaplacentastem cellstrophoblastmaternal healthvascular malperfusiondisease modelingcell characterization
Research Aims
3AIM 01Identify the optimal method to study abnormal trophoblast differentiation in preeclampsia placentas.
AIM 02Characterize the placenta from preeclampsia cases with different vascular malperfusion subtypes.
AIM 03Evaluate the interaction between trophoblast cells and mesenchymal stem cells in the chorionic villi of preeclampsia placentas.
Skills the Lab Values
cell culturestem cell differentiationmolecular characterizationimmunophenotypingRNA sequencingdata analysis with Pythonhistological analysisbiological assays
Output against the department
Publications49bottom 11% of dept.911th of 1,033
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations845bottom 4% of dept.996th of 1,033
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.