Shannon Bainbridge
Shannon Bainbridge
Associate Professor

2010: Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Reproductive Physiology and Cell Biology, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital
2008: Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Magee-Womens Research Institute, University of Pittsburgh
2006: PhD in Reproductive Anatomy and Cell Biology, Queen's University
2001: BScH in Life Sciences, Queen's University

Room
RGN 2116 (office)
RGN2117 (lab)
Phone
613-562-5800 ext. 8569


Biography

Dr. Shannon Bainbridge’s research program at the Placenta Lab, University of Ottawa, seeks to understand the biological complexities of placental dysfunction and how it leads to adverse short- and long-term health outcomes for birthing parents and their children. Dr. Bainbridge applies an interdisciplinary approach, with particular emphasis on translating generated knowledge into clinical practice. Her well-funded research (over $7.7 Million in grant funding from CIHR, NSERC, CFI, and the Preeclampsia Foundation) has made considerable advances in our understanding of the distinct forms of placental disease that underlie some of the most common and debilitating obstetrical complications, including preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction. Her research also seeks to understand how exposure to various environmental factors, such as opioids, cannabis, or plastic products, can affect placental development and function, and the long-term consequences of these environment-placenta interactions on the lifelong health and wellbeing of the offspring and birthing parents. Through a fruitful collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering at Carleton University, Dr. Bainbridge’s team is currently working on developing machine learning algorithms that can be applied in the context of a clinical placenta pathology exam. This would assist in the automated diagnosis of distinct forms of placental disease, detection of different in utero environmental exposures, and the generation of future health risk profiles for offspring and birthing parents. More information about Dr. Bainbridge’s research program can be found on her lab website.

The Placenta Lab is also highly committed to community engagement; it hosts family-friendly events that focus on the importance of early life experiences to lifelong health and wellness, and more specifically on the “most important organ you have ever owned – your placenta”. These events include interactive activities and experiments for children and youth, models and infographics highlighting research being done by the group, and “meet a scientist” sessions – actions to deliberatively communicate science to the general public. If your organization or classroom is interested in hosting a Placenta Lab community engagement event, please send us an email.

Professor Bainbridge is accepting new students for thesis supervision.

Quick links

Research interests

  • Placental development and function/dysfunction
  • Developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD)
  • Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction
  • Maternal cardiovascular disease
  • Application of artificial intelligence for placenta pathology

Publications

Complete publications: NCBI

  • Benton SJ, Mery E, Grynspan D, Gaudet L, Smith GN, Bainbridge SA. (2022) Placental Pathology as a Tool to Identify Women for Postpartum Cardiovascular Risk Screening Following Preeclampsia: A Preliminary Investigation. J. Clin. Med., 11(6), 1576.
  • Mohammad S, Bhattacharjee J, Vasanthan T, Harris CS, Bainbridge SA, Adamo KB. (2021) Metabolomics to understand placental biology: Where are we now? Tissue Cell;73:101663.
  • Zaza A, Pudwell J, Connor K, Bainbridge S, Smith GN (2021). Placental morphology and the prediction of underlying cardiovascular risk factors. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol.;263:56-61.
  • Dancey S, Mery E, Esteves A, Oltean I, Hayawi L, Tang K, Bainbridge S, El Demellawy D. (2021) Histopathology findings in pregnancies with placental disease according to recipient versus donor oocyte derivation for in vitro fertilization. Placenta; 108:114-121.
  • Shearer J, Klein M, Mohammad S, Vogel H, Bainbridge S, Adamo K (2021) Maternal and cord blood metabolite associations with gestational weight gain and pregnancy health outcomes. J Proteo Res; 5;20(3):1630-1638.
  • Charette P, Cook D, Cox B, Vanderhyden B, Bainbridge S. (2020) FGL2-Associated Transcriptional and Histopathological Features of Immunological Preeclampsia. Hypertension; 76(3):910-921. 
  • Salsabili S, Mukherjee A, Ukwatta E, Chan ADC, Bainbridge SA, Grynspan D. (2019) Automated Segmentation of Villi in Histopathology Images of Placenta. Comput Biol Med. Oct;113:103420.
  • Benton S, Grynspan D., Bainbridge SA. (2019) Synoptic reporting for clinical placental pathology to better understand pregnancy complications and improve patient care. Placenta, Feb;77:46-57.
  • Gibbs I, Leavey K, Benton SJ, Grynspan D, Bainbridge SA & Cox B (2019). Placental Subtypes of Suspected Fetal Growth Restriction and Relationships to Maternal Hypertensive State. Am J Obstet Gynecol. Jan;220(1):110.e1-110.e21.
  • Benton SJ, Leavey K, Grynspan D, Cox B & Bainbridge SA (2018). The clinical heterogeneity of preeclampsia is related to both placental gene expression and placental histopathology. Am J Obstet Gynecol. Dec;219(6):604.e1-604.e25.
  • Leavey K, Wilson SL, Bainbridge SA, Robinson WP, Cox BJ. (2018). Epigenetic regulation of placental gene expression in transcriptional subtypes of preeclampsia. Clin Epigenetics. 10:28. doi: 10.1186/s13148-018-0463-6.
  • McGee M, Bainbridge S, Fontaine-Bisson B. (2018). A crucial role for maternal dietary methyl donor intake in epigenetic programming and fetal growth outcomes. Nutr Rev. 2018 Feb 26. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuy006.
  • Ly C., Ferrier J., Arnasone J.T., Yockell-Lelièvreb J., Gruslin A., Bainbridge SA. (2018). Vaccinium angustifolium (Lowbush blueberry) leaf extract increases extravillous trophoblast cell migration and invasion in vitro. Phytother Res. 32(4):705-714.
  • Leavey K, Benton SJ, Grynspan D, Bainbridge SA, Morgen EK, Cox BJ. (2017). Gene Markers of Normal Villous Maturation and Their Expression in Placentas with Maturational Pathology. Placenta. 58:52-5924.
  • Dube C, Auger C. Adamo K., Bainbridge SA. (2017). Do Exercise-induced Myokines have a Role in Pregnancy? Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 42(5):459-469.
  • Benton S, Ly C, Vukovic S, Bainbridge SA. Andrée Gruslin award lecture: Metabolomics as an important modality to better understand preeclampsia. (2016). Placenta.  Nov 16. pii: S0143-4004(16)30626-9.
  • Leavey K, Benton SJ, Grynspan D, Kingdom JC, Bainbridge SA & Cox BJ. (2016). Unsupervised Placental Gene Expression Profiling Identifies Clinically Relevant Subclasses of Human Preeclampsia. Hypertension. Jul;68(1):137-47.

Active research funding

  • Improving Placental Function: Developing Screening Tools and Targeted Therapies for Preeclampsia. Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Science - Early Researcher Award, 2017-2022. Role: Principal Investigator.
  • PARP-dependent NAD+ depletion as a cause of placental dysfunction in preeclampsia. CIHR, 2017-2022. Role: Principal Investigator (Co-PI: K. Menzies)
  • Does maternal physical activity affect placenta biology? A multi-tiered approach. CIHR, 2015-2020. Role: Co-investigator (PI: K. Adamo)
  • A novel histopathology diagnostic antibody panel capable of identifying distinct subclasses of placental disease in preeclampsia. Physicians Services Incorporated, 2015-2017. Role: Principal Investigator (Co-PI: D. Grynspan)
  • Role of FGL2 in placental development and preeclampsia. Preeclampsia Foundation, 2015-2017. Role: Principal investigator
  • DREAM: Determining Risk Elevation After Maternity. The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization (TOHAMO) Innovation Fund, 2015-2017. Role: Co-investigator (PI: L. Gaudet)
  • Identification of Molecular Subtypes of Preeclampsia. CIHR, 2013-2018. Role: Principal Investigator (Co-PI: B. Cox)