Dr Teodora Georgescu

Supervisor Details

Contact Details

School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick

Scientific Background

Research Interests

Pregnancy requires numerous physiological adaptations to ensure the healthy development of the offspring. My research seeks to understand how hormonal signals act on the maternal brain to coordinate these adaptations, with a particular focus on thermoregulation, breathing and cardiovascular function.

I am particularly interested in identifying the hormone-sensitive neural circuits underlying these adaptations, and understanding how their disruption may contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Research Groups

Neuroscience

Supervision Style

In three words or phrases: Open communication, growing independence, adaptive supervision.

Provision of Training

I will provide hands-on support with technical training initially, while gradually encouraging you to develop confidence and independence in your research. Training will be tailored to your individual learning style and needs, with students encouraged to read widely, develop their own ideas and suggest new approaches to experimental problems.

Progression Monitoring and Management

I expect students to manage their own time and take ownership of their progress. We will have individual meetings every two weeks, alongside fortnightly lab meetings, to review progress and set goals. I will support and challenge you to pursue new opportunities, but expect you to take initiative in identifying opportunities relevant to your development.

Communication

I value open and regular communication, including through a lab WhatsApp group and email. I may send messages outside normal working hours, but I do not expect responses outside your own working hours. I value a healthy work/life balance and will try to accommodate individual needs wherever possible. If something isn’t going to plan, I expect you to communicate this openly and, where possible, think about potential solutions so we can work through it together.

Meetings

PhD Students can expect scheduled meetings with me at least once per fortnight. These meetings will be face-to-face. I am usually contactable for an instant response on every working day.

Work Patterns

Certain tasks in my lab need to occur at set times, and students need to be able to commit to a rota/timetable shared with other members of the team.

Notice Period for Feedback

I need at least 2 weeks' notice to provide feedback on written work of up to 5,000 words.

MIBTP Project Details

Primary supervisor for:

Hormonal regulation of breathing during pregnancy

See the PhD Opportunities section to see if this project is currently open for applications via MIBTP.

Please Note: The main page lists projects via BBSRC Research Theme(s) quoted and then relevant Topic(s).

Hormonal regulation of breathing during pregnancy

Secondary Supervisor(s): Professor Nicholas Dale, Dr Amol Bhandare

University of Registration: University of Warwick

BBSRC Research Themes:

Understanding the Rules of Life (Neuroscience and Behaviour)

Project Outline

About the project: Successful offspring development relies on multiple physiological adaptations that prepare the mother for the demands of pregnancy and lactation. One important adaptation is an increase in breathing and a change in CO2 sensitivity (Leavens et al., 2006; LoMauro & Aliverti, 2015). Despite this adaptive change, 70% of women suffer from shortness of breath and in some cases respiratory symptoms can become clinically significant or can be associated with pregnancy complications (Lee et al., 2017; Mehta et al., 2015). How the brain controls these respiratory changes during pregnancy is however not yet fully understood. Hormones linked to pregnancy are likely to play an important role. For example, progesterone rises during pregnancy and is known to increase breathing (Georgescu, 2023). This project will aim to uncover how hormonal signalling in the brain can affect breathing changes during pregnancy. We will determine how breathing and responses to respiratory challenges change across pregnancy and identify hormone-sensitive brain regions that may drive these adaptations.

Methods: The project will use a range of techniques to investigate the neural mechanisms of breathing adaptations during pregnancy. Breathing in mice will be recorded via a non-invasive method at different stages of pregnancy and across the reproductive cycle (Bhandare et al., 2022). Responses to changes in CO2 and O2 will be used to determine how sensitivity to these gases changes with reproductive state. In parallel, isolated brain tissue will be used to map progesterone receptors and other candidate hormone receptors in regions involved in respiratory control and determine whether their expression changes during pregnancy. To investigate the functional importance of these pathways in the control of breathing, we shall use targeted genetic manipulation of hormone receptors in the brain. Neuronal activity may also be measured to examine how pregnancy alters respiratory circuits.