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Prof Jo James

@drjojames.bsky.social
333 followers 149 following 31 posts

Placenta obsessed scientist working to better understand and predict why some babies are born dangerously small, teacher, mentor, mum, outdoor explorer. She/her

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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Pleased some of our earlier work imaging the Boyd Collection at @loke-ctr.bsky.social could be integrated into this lovely paper by @vethannaphd.bsky.social et al. looking to how we can use new machine learning tools to get even more value from this kind of legacy data. doi.org/10.1016/j.pl... 👏
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
When you didn’t get time for breakfast, but this appears at the end of your morning meeting 😍 Thanks team ABI, happy to keep drawing out these celebrations!
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Here (in work led by Dr Anna Boss and her student Isha) we are imaging the blood vessels in the placenta (red) and the surrounding tissue (green) in 3D to see how the vascular architecture of the placenta is impacted by obesity.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
A shout out to various members of my team who have been spending way too much time recently in dark basements imaging bits of placenta with the new lightsheet microscope (with much troubleshooting) and processing the resulting datasets… but the results when it works! 🤩 @anzpra1.bsky.social
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
And yes, I did send many follow up emails over this time, and threatened to pull it at least once!
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
New record - got a manuscript outcome notification today for a paper I submitted in November 2023 🤯 TWENTY-ONE MONTHS to reach a first decision of minor revisions. The system is broken. 😒 #atleastitwasntrejected
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
This paper has been building for a while - started by gene expression work done by Teena Gamage in her PhD, and then contains almost all of Cherry Sun’s PhD work following this up in functional experiments. Amazing work by these two! 🤩
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
This helps explain why FGR placentas are smaller and less able to transport oxygen and nutrients to the baby. Knowing this will hopefully let us identify therapeutic strategies to target this upstream dysfunction, in turn improving a range of downstream consequences for the placenta.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Feels like it’s been a while between papers.. but pleased to say our latest is now out! Here we used the side-population technique to isolate trophoblast stem cells from term placentas, showing that in FGR they grow slower, die more easily, and have impaired differentiation. doi.org/10.1016/j.ye...
kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Fun day at the Rosehill College Hauora expo sharing our love of all things placenta, and our work aimed at better interpreting ultrasound in pregnancy to improve detection of at risk babies. New hologram was a hit (looks better irl), and tons of kids through 😃 #teamplacenta #pregnancymodellinggroup
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
(Final paper from her PhD hopefully out soon 🤞🤞... watch this space!)
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Congrats to Dr Cherry Sun on officially joining the floppy hat club yesterday! 🥂🌟 Cherry’s thesis showed functional impairments in trophoblast stem cells from FGR placentae - they grow slower, die easier, & differentiate differently - which may explain placental changes seen in this disorder.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Super grateful for this generous philanthropic support of our work to develop sex-specific virtual placenta models, which we hope to use to develop more personalised tools to aid early identification of babies at risk of being born dangerously small. www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2025...
auckland.ac.nz
Alumnus bolsters world-first projects at University research institutes - The University of AucklandFacebookTwitterYouTubeLinkedInInstagramWomen's Refuge
Up to 30 percent of babies in neonatal intensive care will be impacted by a rare disorder. Currently, that equates to around 500 babies born each year who have a rare undiagnosed genetic disorder.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
My pleasure to talk about our work on data-driven models of the feto-placental circulation at #SRI2025 in Charlotte today. Thank you to the audience for so much wonderful interaction after! 🙏
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Saw the below chart, realised that individual universities in the US can get about 5x more $ from the NIH alone than our entire country has available to apply for from its two biggest funders (HRC and Marsden, together ~$200 million NZD). Cool cool.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
👏👏👏 what BMJ said 👏👏👏
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Reposted by Prof Jo James
Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 04/02/2025
The list of forbidden words for scientific researchers in the United States of America in the year 2025.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
I’m keeping my upcoming March 🇺🇸 conference plans that are booked because a) can’t get the money back, and b) our US colleagues in women’s health at said conference are not the enemy and need our support. But I will be trying to avoid US travel after that tbh.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Larry has a real one in his office next door to me (not signed), I’m not sure he will part with it when he retires, but I swear to god if it isn’t left to me in his will….
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
media.tenor.com
a man in a blue shirt says " it 's beautiful " in white letters
ALT: a man in a blue shirt says " it 's beautiful " in white letters
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Hey placenta/pregnancy people - happy to share that we've now set #ANZPRA up over here! 🥳
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Beautiful review on the placental vasculature and is known of its altered function in pre-eclampsia by Hanna Allerkamp and colleagues at MedUniGraz👏 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Exploring the Lifeline: Unpacking the Complexities of Placental Vascular Function in Normal and Preeclamptic Pregnancies
The proper development and function of the placenta are essential for the success of pregnancy and the well-being of both the fetus and the mother. Placental vascular function facilitates efficient f....
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Reposted by Prof Jo James
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 02/01/2025
We can tell the truth about pregnancy without scaring women to death – in fact, it’s vital that we do | Emily Oster
theguardian.com
We can tell the truth about pregnancy without scaring women to death – in fact, it’s vital that we do | Emily Oster
Many women have no idea about the potential complications until they happen. Without discussion there is no treatment or prevention There is an inherent tension between two basic facts about childbirth. On the one hand, it has happened billions and…
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
It’s impossible to get as it has been out of print so long. When Larry retires and the copy I use is at risk of leaving the building you will find me begging desperately at his door for the mere hope of it passing on to me… 🤞🤞
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
This research should be done in NZ.. because I am the one who had the idea and has the background that best places me to do the research, and you should count yourself lucky that I currently still live/work in NZ and it can be done here 🤷‍♀️. Honestly 🤬 to all of this.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Congratulations to Anandita Umapathy on her PhD graduation today! Great to have her back in NZ to celebrate together 🥳 🥂#sillyhatday @aucklanduni.bsky.social
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
This was part of the great work Cherry Sun did in her PhD (with more to come..), and was made possible thanks to funding from @ranzcog.bsky.social Mercia Barnes Trust and the AMRF (@medresearchnz.bsky.social) who supported her PhD scholarship 🙏
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Feels like it's been a minute.. but happy to announce the latest #JamesLab paper is now out! 🥳 Here we take a dive into trophoblast organoid models to think about the role of trophoblast stem cells in organoid formation. doi.org/10.1016/j.pl... #teamplacenta #organoids
doi.org
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
🔥🔥👇👇
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Seems like a great reason to hold more US based meetings in Hawaii.. 😉
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Reposted by Prof Jo James
Troy Baisden @troybaisden.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
More on Marsden’s dark day: There’s detailed comments via SMC www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2024/12/04/g...
sciencemediacentre.co.nz
Govt cuts humanities and social science funding - Expert Reaction
Humanities and social science funding has been cut from the Marsden Fund, the main fund for 'blue-skies' research in Aotearoa New Zealand. The areas that have been cut include research in subjects lik...
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
A bit slow on this, but now there is a media piece.. stoked that Alys & I got a Marsden grant recently to further explore the biomechanical relationship between the placenta & heart in utero, and how this may impact fetal heart dysfunction in very small babies. 🥳🫀 www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2024...
auckland.ac.nz
Zooming into the womb - The University of AucklandFacebookTwitterYouTubeLinkedInInstagramWomen's Refuge
A team creating virtual models of the heart and placenta to study links between low birth weight babies and heart disease has secured $1 million in funding.
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Just back from a great couple of days at Tūrangawaewae marae immersing ourselves in Te Ao Maori, connecting with local communities, and having such a fun mass work sleepover. So many thanks to the #IUE team and the phenomenal maanakitanga of Tainui. Mauri ora! #teamplacenta
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Prof Jo James @drjojames.bsky.social · 22/12/2023
There will be so many people in generations to come who will not have to carry this burden as heavily, and can just be exactly who they are, solely because of amazing people like you. Keep fighting the good fight, even though you should not have to fight it at all. Your mahi matters. 👊
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