Dr. Bale's lab has developed mouse models to study vulnerability to stress dysregulation, assessing sex-specificity, developmental timing, and epigenetic mechanisms involved in programming of the brain, placenta, and sperm in response to stress. Her research has provided novel insight into the increased neurodevelopmental risk to males following prenatal insults, such as maternal stress, and the role of placental sex (XX vs. XY) in buffering effects of gestational insult. Her lab identified OGT expression in the placenta as critical in providing protection to female offspring. Her lab is also making important discoveries linking paternal stress experience to offspring dysregulation through novel epigenetic markers in the sperm. Recently, Dr. Bale has focused on bridging basic and clinical research, translating her work on epigenetic markers in the sperm, and collaborating with Dr. Neill Epperson to mechanistically examine the impact of early life adversity on neuropsychiatric disease in women.
