The scientist studying how fugitive fetal cells may affect maternal health
STAT Wunderkind Kristine Chua's research on microchimerism has the potential to open new paths for understanding and improving maternal health.
Chimeras — fantastical creatures composed of different animal parts — have appeared across cultures representing the wondrous, the grotesque, and the inherent complexity of identity. In ancient Greece, the chimera was part lion, part goat, part serpent. In classical Japanese history, it was made up of a monkey, tiger, and dog. Now, modern biology holds that humans can also be chimeras, housing cells from different genetic origins.
Kristine Chua, a postdoctoral researcher in biology at the University of California Santa Barbra, studies one form of chimerism — microchimerism — that occurs when cells are exchanged between mother and fetus during pregnancy. Her work has the potential to help reinvent how scientists define the human body as well as open new paths for understanding and improving maternal health.
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