University of Washington Transporter Elucidation Center (UWTEC) is launched by a team of faculty and researchers mainly from School of Pharmacy – Department of Pharmaceutics, along with collaborators from UW School of Medicine and the Madigan Army Medical Center.
As one of the four newly created national centers focusing on the uptake and disposition of drugs, nutrients, and dietary substances during early human development, UWTEC is powered by a broad spectrum of professional expertise, ranging from state-of-art proteomics, transporter biology and functional analysis, mass spectrometry and imaging, to human intestinal organoids and micro-physiological systems, and ex vivo human placenta perfusion models.
Overall Goal
The broad goals of UWTEC are:
- To identify and quantify transporters in the human placenta from early gestation to term, and in the developing gut (fetal and neonate/infant);
- To functionally characterize and determine the cellular localization of the highly abundant transporters identified in these human organs.
Collectively, these studies will provide clinically and mechanistically important data for understanding transporters that control absorption and distribution of nutrients (including vitamins) and xenobiotics (FDA approved drugs and dietary supplements) in the developing fetus and neonate/infant. We hope our work will lead to healthier prenatal and perinatal fetal development as well as improved safety for medication use in pregnant and pediatric patients.
Occludin
