Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn, PhD

Research Associate Professor
Mother Infant Research Institute

Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn, PhD is a Principal Investigator in the Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) at Tufts Medical Center. Her research interest is the effect of maternal nutrition on fetal cardiovascular development and fat deposition, focusing on the role of placental lipid management in this relationship. She received her PhD in cardiovascular molecular biology in 2006 at Queen’s University in Canada. She then moved to Portland for her postdoctoral training in fetal physiology at Oregon Health & Science University.

Perrie was awarded a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Grant in 2011 from the NICHD to determine the degree to which maternal obesity alters gender-specific fatty acid transport and metabolism in the placentas of women at term. In 2013, she joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She relocated to the MIRI in 2018, where her lab is focused on two major NIH-funded projects:

  • A cohort study to determine how maternal lipid metabolism in early pregnancy affects placental function and fetal growth.
  • Identification of placental-derived microRNA affecting maternal glucose metabolism during pregnancy.

The broader goal of her research is to understand how mother and placenta interact to regulate nutrient metabolism and delivery.