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Sunil Singh

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi

Research areas: Medicine · Obstetrics and Gynecology · Air Quality and Health Impacts · Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies · Birth, Development, and Health

ORCID iD 0009-0000-3087-1681
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About

My research interest is driven by the curiosity to understand how exposure to environmental pollutants can alter maternal-fetal tissues, their communication, and the cellular processes essential for successful pregnancy. My Ph.D. and postdoctoral training have allowed me to investigate this question across different stages of gestation and expand my focus from placental biology to the maternal endometrium, where the earliest events of pregnancy establishment occur. During my Ph.D. at AIIMS, New Delhi, I investigated how air pollutants, particularly PM2.5 and SO₂, affect placental development and pregnancy. Using cellular, animal, and clinical models, I studied how environmental stress disrupts trophoblast function and maternal-fetal communication. This work provided me with extensive training in reproductive biology and environmental toxicology and further led me to recognize that some of these adverse pregnancy outcomes may originate from dysfunction of the maternal endometrium. My postdoctoral research has allowed me to investigate how exposure to polluted air, particularly PM2.5, could adversely affect the endometrial epithelium and stromal cells. Importantly, endometrial epithelial and stromal cells undergo extensive metabolic, genomic, epigenomic, and proteomic reorganization to create a uterine environment suitable for successful implantation. These changes involve coordinated cellular proliferation and differentiation, along with dynamic regulation of glucose and glycogen metabolism. Understanding how PM2.5 interferes with these critical cellular processes is therefore of great importance for defining its contribution to endometrial dysfunction and subsequent adverse pregnancy and female reproductive outcomes. My long-term goal is to establish an independent research program investigating how environmental and metabolic factors regulate embryo–endometrium–placenta communication during early pregnancy. I aim to understand the endometrium as a dynamic maternal tissue whose cellular and metabolic plasticity is critical for reproductive success. Ultimately, I hope to identify mechanisms through which environmental exposures contribute to implantation failure and pregnancy loss and uncover potential pathways for protecting reproductive health.

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Publications (17)