Solute carrier membrane transporters (SLCs) are a class of membrane proteins that regulate the passage of small molecules across the placenta to a developing fetus. The extent to which a specific SLC class, known as OATP transporters, regulate small molecule transport in the placenta, for both native and exogenous small molecules, remains elusive. We seek to use untargeted metabolomics profiling, developed at our institute, to analyze the metabolomic (or small molecule) profile of cells expressing placenta-enriched OATPs to discover novel transport substrates. Using untargeted profiles, metabolomic, and exposomic analysis, we seek to add to field of perinatal pharmacokinetics by focusing on the cellular transport of the select ligands. Through this pilot grant, we will collaborate with MPRINT to generate novel metabolomic profiles in open-source libraries of molecules in maternal or cord blood.
Read more about MPRINT at https://www.mprint.org/
