Louise Laurent is an Associate Professor in Reproductive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego and a recipient of a training fellowship from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a fellowship from the NIH Reproductive Scientist Development Program, and a fellowship from the NIH/NICHD Women's Reproductive Health Research Career Development Program. She received her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology and her clinical fellowship training in Maternal Fetal Medicine at UC San Diego. As a student in the laboratory of Vikas P. Sukatme, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Chicago, she cloned and characterized EGR1, a zinc finger transcription factor. Her graduate research as a MSTP student at UCSF included a large scale mutagenesis and molecular tracking strategy to define the regions of the HIV genome necessary for viral replication in the laboratory of Patrick O. Brown, M.D. / Ph.D. As a clinical fellow, she worked with Jeanne Loring, Ph.D. at The Scripps Research Institute to delineate the expression of miRNAs in human embryonic stem cells. Her current basic science research focuses on applying genomic and epigenomic methods to understanding the molecular regulation of pluripotency and differentiation and identifying the molecular basis of placental dysfunction in human pregnancy. She also has a translational science program, which includes projects aimed at optimizing the preclinical and clinical utility of human pluripotent stem cells and in discovering biomarkers for prediction and early diagnosis of adverse pregnancy outcomes.