Department of Oral Biology

Dr. Rutherford

Dr. Rutherford is the Director of the Comparative Primate Biology Laboratory and Assistant Professor of Histology within the Department of Oral Biology in the College of Dentistry. She is interested in the primate placenta as a signaling interface between mother and fetus. Dr. Rutherford works with both humans and non-human primates to address questions regarding the effect of maternal nutritional history on placental morphology, metabolic function, and gene expression. She is also pursuing research into the role of the intrauterine environment generally (and the placenta specifically) in programming life history parameters within individuals, as well as evolutionary change within and across taxa. Dr. Rutherford and colleagues at Northwestern University, Wayne State University, and San Carlos University in Cebu, Philippines are exploring epigenetic regulation of placental systems of amino acid transport and morphological adaptations in the context of a unique longitudinal, multigenerational study of women and their children in the Philippines. This study seeks to determine whether a mother’s own developmental experience shapes the placental transmission of nutrients to her offspring. Dr. Rutherford is also applying the study of placental plasticity to the question of litter size evolution among the callitrichine primates, the group that includes the marmosets, tamarins, and callimicos.

Rutherford JN and Tardif SD. (2009) Mother's little helper? The placenta and its relation to maternal investment in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) In: Ford S, Davis L, and Porter L. (eds) The Smallest Anthropoids: the marmoset-callimico radiation. Springer-Verlag. excerpt

Rutherford JN, Eklund AE, Tardif SD. (2009) Placental insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) and its relation to litter size variation in the captive common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). American Journal of Primatology (DOI 10.1002/ajp.20739; epub September 9, 2009). abstract

Rutherford JN. (2009) Fetal signaling through placental structure and endocrine function: illustrations and implications from a non-human primate model. American Journal of Human Biology (DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.20923; epub April 21, 2009). abstract

Rutherford JN and Tardif SD. (2009) Developmental plasticity of the microscopic placental architecture in relation to litter size variation in the common marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus). Placenta 30:105-110. abstract

Rutherford JN and Tardif SD. (2008) Placental efficiency and intrauterine resource allocation strategies in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 137(1): 60-8. abstract