About Us

Mission

The Integrated Transporter Elucidation Center (InTEC) is a nationwide consortium to advance our understanding of how placental transporters impact the disposition of endobiotics, xenobiotics, and overall pregnancy health.

Approach

InTEC utilizes novel technologies to advance placental transporter biology by studying solute carrier (SLC) and ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters. The central goals of InTEC are to 1) Profile the SLC and ABC transporter proteome during healthy and diseased pregnancies using placentas from the US-based UPSIDE birth cohort and the GAPPS repository, 2) Predict and validate novel substrates and regulators of placental transport using machine learning and cheminformatics, and 3) Simulate the disposition of chemicals across the maternal-fetal interface using a vascularized placenta-on-a-chip.  InTEC is testing nutrients, supplements, drugs, and toxicants as substrates, inhibitors, and regulators of placental transporters.

Funding

InTEC is funded by a cooperative agreement (UC2HD113039) with the National Institutes of Health. Funds are provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the NIH Office of the Director.

Team and Training

Investigators within InTEC spans Rutgers University, Tulane University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the University of Rochester Medical Center. Through this Center, unique training opportunities are provided to early career scientists (undergraduate students, MS/MPH/PhD students, and postdoc fellows) and clinicians (obstetrics residents and fellows) at the intersections of pharmacology, computational biology, public health, maternal-fetal medicine, and biomedical engineering.