The Colorado NORC is managed by an Executive Committee comprised of the NORC Director, Associate Director, Core Directors, and Regular Members. An External Advisory Board advises our committee on major policy decisions and annually reviews the Colorado NORC's progress.
Email Address:kristen.boyle@cuanschutz.edu
Primary Phone:3037245969
Research Complex II
12700 East 19th Avenue
Room 5111
Aurora, CO 80045
My research focuses on clinical interventions combined with mechanistic investigations by using primary human cell culture models. Most recently, we have developed a model for investigating human intrauterine phenotype development using umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In the context of obesity in pregnancy, these infant stem cells demonstrate greater adiposity and metabolic dysfunction consistent with the adult obesity phenotype. It is our goal to further our understanding of how maternal obesity or diabetes impact the infants born to these mothers by evaluating the epigenetic and metabolic outcomes in the infant MSCs. Moreover, longitudinal assessments of the children from which the MSCs were derived will clarify the potential role of umbilical cord MSC phenotype for predicting obesity or diabetes risk in the children.