Dr. Babbette LaMarca is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Her laboratory is interested in identifying immune mechanisms that cause hypertension during pregnancy. Specifically, Dr. LaMarca's research focuses on the interactions between lymphocytes and autoantibodies in the pathophysiology of hypertension in response to placental ischemia. Over the years, her group has developed models designed to identify how immune cells or their products cause changes in blood pressure during pregnancy. Moreover, her laboratory has developed an autoantibody-specific clinically relevant inhibitory peptide to block hypertension and endothelial dysfunction which could have potential clinical use in the future. Dr. LaMarca's research work has a strong translational research component with tight collaborations with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) Division in the Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. LaMarca has served as MFM Thesis Director since 2006. Through this collaboration, her group has access to human tissues to study alterations in genes and/or proteins in response to low oxygen environment or placental ischemia. Dr. LaMarca’s group research interest also encompasses mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Over the past few years, her group has established new models to understand the role of mitochondrial oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia.