Using artificial intelligence and advanced computing technologies to better understand the interaction between maternal and foetal cells during pregnancy

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Petra Clara Arck
• Subject Area: Reproductive Medicine, Urology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 567451569

During pregnancy, maternal cells seed into foetal organs, where they can interact with the immune cells of the foetal host, e.g., in the foetal brain. The presence of these maternal cells, known as maternal microchimeric cells, has been shown to influence neurodevelopment and behaviour in mice. However, the mechanisms underlying the cell-cell interactions between maternal and foetal cells remain largely unexplored. The aim of our project is to investigate the communication and signalling pathways between maternal microchimeric cells and foetal microglia, along with their progenitors. Microglia are immune cells resident in the brain that play a crucial role in maintaining brain homeostasis and largely self-renew throughout life. To address our aim, we will utilize cutting-edge techniques, such as spatial biology and scMultiomeSeq, at our partner site in Hamburg to create data sets of maternal microchimeric cells in foetal tissues of mice. Subsequently, these data will be analysed by our collaborators in Daejeon, South Korea, using high-performance computing technology and advanced transformer-based artificial intelligence modelling to uncover the pathways involved in cell-cell interactions. By leveraging our respective expertise in Germany and South Korea, we aim to overcome significant challenges hampering the understanding of the interaction of cells from genetically discordant hosts, such as mother and foetus, including the low recall of expressed genes per cell and domain shifts. Our project will advance research on interactions between cells from different hosts, specifically exploring how maternal microchimerism interacts with foetal cells in the brain, ultimately contributing to efforts aimed at mitigating neurodevelopment in offspring.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: South Korea
• Partner Organisation: National Research Foundation of Korea, NRF
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Hyojung Paik