iPEnd Training Grant

iPEnd T32 Postdoctoral Training Program

Welcome to our NICHD-funded T32 postdoctoral training program, led by Drs. Ian Bird and Jon Levine! The Integrated Program in Endocrinology Translational Postdoctoral Training Program (T32HD1013840) achieved funding in 2021.

The campus home for this program will be the integrated Program in Endocrinology (iPEnd), which was founded in 2016 to foster and promote collaboration focused on fetal development and the compromised adult outcomes of adverse pregnancy. The goal of this program is to provide for the PhD and MD Fellow a combined and integrated immersion experience in a cutting-edge cross-campus research program that is in itself embedded in and focused upon a more clinical environment where health and disease is the primary consideration, and to then promote the use of nonhuman primate and human derived models in Fellowship projects lead by MD/DVM/PhD Faculty pairs of combined clinical and traditional training backgrounds.

Interested in becoming one of our trainees? Click here for recruitment information and instructions.

Recent Trainee Publications

Wegrzynowicz AK, Dudley CM, Cooney LG, Stanic AK. POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME: ORIGINS AND IMPLICATIONS: Maternal complications of pregnancy in polycystic ovary syndrome. Reproduction. 2025 Oct 31;170(6):e250108. doi: 10.1530/REP-25-0108. PMID: 41175857.

de Faria Oliveira G, Niepsuj T, Gupta A, Auger AP. Exploring diversity: a review of animal models for investigating variations in sex characteristics. Front Pediatr. 2025 Nov 21;13:1430983. PMCID: PMC12678262.

Dahn RL*, Lett B*, Clemente L*, Austin JL, Yi FX, Boeldt DS, Stanic AK, Ong I, Bird IM. Cytokines induce immunomodulatory subtypes of uterine artery endothelial cells. J Mol Endocrinol. 2025 Oct 21;75(3):e240086. (*Co-first authors). PMCID: PMC12721315

Clemente L, Zhou C, Chaiyakul K, Adams JH, Jacobson J, Austin JL, Boeldt DS, Ong IM, Bird IM. TNF but not VEGF induces secretion of multiple chemokines and cytokines by uterine artery endothelial cells: potential implications for preeclampsia. J Mol Endocrinol. 2025 Aug 22;75(2): e250008. PMCID: PMC12490415

Wegrzynowicz AK, Banerjee S, Grimes E, Huddleston R, Jaimes FL, Cooney LG, Stanic AK. Single-cell analysis of follicular fluid reveals dysregulation of ovulatory immune function in PCOS patients undergoing ovarian stimulation. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 Aug 12:2025.08.11.25333027. PMCID: PMC12363743

Banerjee S, Jaimes FL, Mohamed MA, Zettel A, Graupe NG, Cooney LG, Stanic AK. High-dimensional immune profiling of follicular fluid and systemic circulation reveals distinct immune signatures in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Front Immunol. 2025 Aug 11;16:1628031. PMCID: PMC12375645

Keding LT, Vazquez J, Liu RY, Bove E, Dorobek J, Simmons HA, Antony KM, Racine JL, Shah DM, Wieben O, Golos TG, Stanic AK. Monocyte chemoattractant Protein-1 (MCP-1) decreases mineralization of the villous stroma in the macaque placenta. Placenta. 2025 Sep;169:72-81. PMCID: PMC12530205 (available on 2026-07-23)

Ambrogi M, Racine JL, Vezina CM. Effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and ondansetron on urinary tract infections in pregnancy. Reprod Sci. 2025 Apr;32(4):1155-1165. PMCID: PMC11981869

Ambrogi M, Hernandez LL, Strand DW, Kumar S, Romero MF, Barasch J, Ridlon M, Keil Stietz KP, Vezina CM. A 5-HT-mediated urethral defense against urinary tract infections. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Apr 22;122(16):e2409754122. PMCID: PMC12037003

Chen R, Seiter D, Keding LT, Vazquez J, Antony KM, Simmons HA, Basu P, Mejia AF, Johnson KM, Stanic AK, Liu RY, Shah DM, Golos TG, Wieben O. Cotyledon-specific flow evaluation of rhesus macaque placental injury using ferumoxytol dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2024 Nov;60(5):2196-2204. PMCID: PMC11896224

Manuel RS, Rundquist A, Ambrogi M, Scharpf BR, Peterson NT, Sandhu JK, Chandrashekar S, Ridlon M, Crawford LK, Keil-Stietz KP, Peterson RE, Vezina CM. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist ITE reduces inflammation and urinary dysfunction in a mouse model of autoimmune prostatitis. Am J Clin Exp Urol. 2024 Aug 25;12(4):149-161. PMCID: PMC11411176

Ambrogi M, Vezina CM. Roles of airway and intestinal epithelia in responding to pathogens and maintaining tissue homeostasis. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2024 Apr 26;14:1346087. PMCID: PMC11082347

Oliveira GF, Nguyen AT, Carreras-Simons L, Niepsuj T, Gadelhak SH, Johnson AK, Abdalla A, Lev E, Torres Román SG, Fuchs SN, Jorgensen JS, Farhat WA, Auger AP. Puberty Blocker, Leuprolide, Reduces Sex Differences in Rough-and-Tumble Play and Anxiety-like Behavior in Juvenile Rats. Endocrinology. 2024 Mar 29;165(5):bqae046. PMCID: PMC11033216

Koenig MR, Vazquez J, Leyva Jaimes FB, Mitzey AM, Stanic AK, Golos TG. Decidual leukocytes respond to African lineage Zika virus infection with mild anti-inflammatory changes during acute infection in rhesus macaques. Front Immunol. 2024 Mar 7;15:1363169. PMCID: PMC10954895

Wegrzynowicz AK, Heelan WJ, Demas SP, McLean MS, Peters JM, Henzler-Wildman KA. Substrate dependence of transport coupling and phenotype of a small multidrug resistance transporter in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. J Bacteriol 2024 206:e00151-24. PMCID: PMC11500531

Vazquez J, Mohamed MA, Banerjee S, Keding LT, Koenig MR, Leyva Jaimes F, Fisher RC, Bove EM, Golos TG, Stanic AK. Deciphering decidual leukocyte traffic with serial intravascular staining. Front Immunol. 2024 Jan 10;14:1332943. PMCID: PMC10806228. Erratum PMID: 38469313

Mauro AK, Clemente L, Khurshid N, Shah DM, Zheng J, Boeldt DS. Src kinase partially mediates cytokine-induced endothelial dysfunction. Pregnancy Hypertens. 2023 Dec;34:83-89. PMCID: PMC10873000

Chasman DA*, Welch Schwartz R*, Vazquez J*, Chavarria M, Jenkins ET, Lopez GE, Tyler CT, Stanic AK, Ong IM. 2023 Proteogenomic and V(D)J analysis of human decidual T cells highlights unique transcriptional programming and clonal distribution. J Immunol. Jul 1;211(1):154-162.  * Co first authors. PMCID: PMC10330249

Clemente L, Bird IM. The epidermal growth factor receptor in healthy pregnancy and preeclampsia. J Mol Endocrinol. 2022 Dec 7;70(1):e220105. PMCID: PMC9742168