Le Phuong Uyen Pham

My research investigates the significance of maternal immune system in assisting pregnancy success and the underlying mechanisms by which the female reproductive system discern each reproductive opportunity. 

Pregnancy is physiologically and mentally expensive to the mother. The female immune system plays a central role in initiating and maintaining a healthy pregnancy throughout gestation. A population of immune cells called T cells are the key player in recognizing 'self' versus 'non-self' antigens in the seminal fluid and on the conceptus. A disrupted balance in T cells subsets is associated with implantation failure, fetal growth restriction and on set of others pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia. 

In mammals, female sexual selection is thought to only occur prior to conception, little is known about the capability of the female to exert their hidden selective mechanism after mating. This phenomenon is referred as 'cryptic female choice', a hidden mechanism by which the female selectively choose to invest or discard each pregnancy opportunity. While there are evidence supporting cryptic female choice, there has not been formally investigated scientifically. Our research aims to identify the role of the female T cells immune response in facilitating cryptic female choice and whether the genetic compatibility between mating partner is the contributing factor to the discrimination of the female immune response.