Contact

• workRoom D2 Medical School
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• Paula.Scaife@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

In 2005 I completed my PhD in Reproductive Immunology entitled "The role of decidual T lymphocytes in human pregnancy". This project was carried out at Newcastle University under the supervision of Professor Stephen Robson, Dr Judith Bulmer and Dr Roger Searle and involved investigation, at the cellular level, of human intrauterine immune responses to pregnancy.

Following on from I moved to the University of Nottingham where I worked with Professor David Gardner examining the effect of nutritional programming on kidney regulation of blood pressure. I then moved to Professor Fiona Broughton Pipkin's research group performing investigation of the placental renin-angiotensin system and the role of folic acid in placental development and folate transport within the placenta. Additionally I worked on the WTCCC3 GWAS for pre-eclamspia with Dr Linda Morgan.

Expertise Summary

• Mass spectrometry
• Clinical Measurements
• Placental biology
• Reproductive Immunology
• Molecular biology techniques, including all aspects of quantitative real time PCR from primer design and assay optimisation to analysis and presentation of data.
• Cell and tissue culture, including primary cell isolation (decidual leucoytyes and placental extravillous trophoblast, murine neural cell culture), matrigel based extravillous trophoblast invasion assays. Also culture using trophoblast cell lines including JAR, JEG, BeWo and HTR. Also worked with various continuous cell lines including BCEC1, HD11, HT29, CaCO2, K562, P815, THP-1 and HeLa.
• Tumour spheroid generation using canine osteosarcoma cells D17 and MG63.
• Immunohistochemistry, including immunofluorescence and TUNEL, imaging, all aspects of slide preparation including processing and paraffin wax embedding of tissue and use of microtome and cryostat. Rapid staining protocols for use with laser capture microdissection. Use of BondMax and ThermoShandon automated staining systems and Sequenza staining system.
• Flow cytometry cell cycle analysis using propidium iodide labelling. Additionally I have used FACS to isolate decidual and peripheral blood leucocytes.
• Aseptic techniques.
• Chromium release assays, including working with radioactive isotopes.
• Cytokine analysis using multiplex technology.
• ELISA and ELISPOT assays.

Research Summary

I work for the Clinical, Metabolic and Molecular Physiology research group.

Selected Publications

• PAULA J WILLIAMS, 2016. The Molecular Genetics of Pre-eclampsia. In: DAVID N COOPER, ed., eLS John Wiley & Sons.
• ZIAD OMRAN, PAULA WILLIAMS and CYRIL RAUCH, 2015. Physics of the chemical asymmetry of the cell membrane: implications in gene regulation and pharmacology Symmetry. 7, 1780-1787
• WALSH M, FAIS S, SPUGNINI EP, HARGUINDEY S, ABU IZNEID T, SCACCO L, WILLIAMS P, ALLEGRUCCI C, RAUCH C and OMRAN Z, 2015. Proton pump inhibitors for the treatment of cancer in companion animals. Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research. 34(1), 93
• KURLAK, L. O., WILLIAMS, P. J., BULMER, J. N., BROUGHTON PIPKIN, F. and MISTRY, H. D., 2015. Placental expression of adenosine A(2A) receptor and hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha in early pregnancy, term and pre-eclamptic pregnancies: interactions with placental renin-angiotensin system Placenta. 36(5), 611-3

• View all publications

• PAULA J WILLIAMS, 2016. The Molecular Genetics of Pre-eclampsia. In: DAVID N COOPER, ed., eLS John Wiley & Sons.
• WALSH M, FAIS S, SPUGNINI EP, HARGUINDEY S, ABU IZNEID T, SCACCO L, WILLIAMS P, ALLEGRUCCI C, RAUCH C and OMRAN Z, 2015. Proton pump inhibitors for the treatment of cancer in companion animals. Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research. 34(1), 93
• KURLAK, L. O., WILLIAMS, P. J., BULMER, J. N., BROUGHTON PIPKIN, F. and MISTRY, H. D., 2015. Placental expression of adenosine A(2A) receptor and hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha in early pregnancy, term and pre-eclamptic pregnancies: interactions with placental renin-angiotensin system Placenta. 36(5), 611-3
• ZIAD OMRAN, PAULA WILLIAMS and CYRIL RAUCH, 2015. Physics of the chemical asymmetry of the cell membrane: implications in gene regulation and pharmacology Symmetry. 7, 1780-1787
• HENTSCHKE, MARTA R, POLI-DE-FIGUEIREDO, CARLOS E, PINHEIRO DA COSTA, BARTIRA E, KURLAK, LESIA O, WILLIAMS, PAULA J and MISTRY, HITEN D, 2013. Is the atherosclerotic phenotype of preeclamptic placentas due to altered lipoprotein concentrations and placental lipoprotein receptors? Role of a small-for-gestational-age phenotype. Journal of lipid research. 54(10), 2658-64
• WILLIAMS PJ and MORGAN L, 2012. The role of genetics in pre-eclampsia and potential pharmacogenomic interventions. Pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. 5, 37-51
• CARTWRIGHT JE and WILLIAMS PJ, 2012. Altered placental expression of kisspeptin and its receptor in pre-eclampsia. The Journal of endocrinology. 214(1), 79-85
• MISTRY HD and WILLIAMS PJ, 2011. The importance of antioxidant micronutrients in pregnancy. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity. 2011, 841749
• WILLIAMS PJ and BROUGHTON PIPKIN F, 2011. The genetics of pre-eclampsia and other hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Best practice & research. Clinical obstetrics & gynaecology. 25(4), 405-17
• WILLIAMS PJ, BULMER JN, INNES BA and BROUGHTON PIPKIN F, 2011. Possible roles for folic acid in the regulation of trophoblast invasion and placental development in normal early human pregnancy. Biology of reproduction. 84(6), 1148-53
• MISTRY, H.D., KURLAK, L.O., WILLIAMS, P.J., RAMSAY, M.M., SYMONDS, M.E. and BROUGHTON PIPKIN, F., 2010. Differential expression and distribution of placental glutathione peroxidases 1, 3 and 4 in normal and preeclamptic pregnancy Placenta. 31, 401-408
• WILLIAMS PJ, MISTRY HD, INNES BA, BULMER JN and BROUGHTON PIPKIN F, 2010. Expression of AT1R, AT2R and AT4R and their roles in extravillous trophoblast invasion in the human. Placenta. 31(5), 448-55
• BULMER JN, WILLIAMS PJ and LASH GE, 2010. Immune cells in the placental bed. The International journal of developmental biology. 54(2-3), 281-94
• WILLIAMS, P.J., MARTEN, N., WILSON, V., LITTEN-BROWN, J.C., CORSON, A.M., CLARKE, L., SYMONDS, M.E. and MOSTYN, A., 2009. Influence of birth weight on gene regulators of lipid metabolism and utilization in subcutaneous adipose tissue and skeletal muscle of neonatal pigs Reproduction: the Journal of the Society for Reproduction and Fertility. 138(3), 609-617
• RYAN RM, GREEN J, WILLIAMS PJ, TAZZYMAN S, HUNT S, HARMEY JH, KEHOE SC and LEWIS CE, 2009. Bacterial delivery of a novel cytolysin to hypoxic areas of solid tumors. Gene therapy. 16(3), 329-39
• WILLIAMS PJ, SEARLE RF, ROBSON SC, INNES BA and BULMER JN, 2009. Decidual leucocyte populations in early to late gestation normal human pregnancy. Journal of reproductive immunology. 82(1), 24-31
• WILLIAMS PJ, BULMER JN, SEARLE RF, INNES BA and ROBSON SC, 2009. Altered decidual leucocyte populations in the placental bed in pre-eclampsia and foetal growth restriction: a comparison with late normal pregnancy. Reproduction (Cambridge, England). 138(1), 177-84
• WILLIAMS, P.J., KURLAK, L.O., PERKINS, A.C., BUDGE, H., STEPHENSON, T., KEISLER, D., SYMONDS, M.E. and GARDNER, D.S., 2007. Hypertension and impaired renal function accompany juvenile obesity: the effect of prenatal diet Kidney International. 72(3), 279-289
• GNANALINGHAM, M.G., WILLIAMS, P., WILSON, V., BISPHAM, J., HYATT, M.A., PELLICANO, A., BUDGE, H., STEPHENSON, T. and SYMONDS, M.E., 2007. Nutritional manipulation between early to mid-gestation: effects on uncoupling protein-2, glucocorticoid sensistivity, IGF-1 receptor and cell proliferation but not apoptosis in the ovine placenta Reproduction. 134, 615-623 (In Press.)
• LASH GE, SCAIFE PJ, INNES BA, OTUN HA, ROBSON SC, SEARLE RF and BULMER JN, 2006. Comparison of three multiplex cytokine analysis systems: Luminex, SearchLight and FAST Quant Journal of Immunological Methods. 309, 205-208
• SCAIFE PJ, BULMER JN, ROBSON SC, INNES BA and SEARLE RF, 2006. Effector activity of decidual CD8+ T lymphocytes Biology of Reproduction. 75, 562-567