{"id":3892,"date":"2024-08-09T19:40:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T19:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=3892"},"modified":"2025-12-11T12:06:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:06:26","slug":"jada-okaikoi","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/jada-okaikoi\/","title":{"rendered":"Jada Okaikoi"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1443\" height=\"1443\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/OkaikoiJada.jpeg.jpg\" alt=\"Jada, Headshot\" class=\"wp-image-3805\" style=\"object-fit:cover;width:250px;height:250px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/OkaikoiJada.jpeg.jpg 1443w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/OkaikoiJada.jpeg-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/OkaikoiJada.jpeg-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/OkaikoiJada.jpeg-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/OkaikoiJada.jpeg-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1443px) 100vw, 1443px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>MIT Department: <\/strong>Biological Engineering<br><strong>Faculty Mentor<\/strong>: Prof. Linda Griffith<br><strong>Research Supervisor:<\/strong> Laura Bahlmann<br><strong>Undergraduate Institution:<\/strong> University of Nevada, Reno<br><strong>Hometown:<\/strong> Las Vegas, Nevada<br><strong>Website:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jada-okaikoi\/\">LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Jada Okaikoi is an undergraduate Biomedical Engineering student at the University of Nevada Reno. She will graduate in May 2025 as an Honors, McNair, and Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) scholar. At her home institution, Jada investigates fibrin\u2019s effects on 3D bioengineered uterine smooth muscle as a suitable in vitro model for pre-term labor drug discovery in Professor Heather Burkin\u2019s lab. She is a recipient of the Nevada Undergraduate Research Award for the Summer\/Fall 2023 award period and the Fall 2024 award period. Currently, Jada is conducting endometriosis research in Professor Linda Griffith\u2019s lab at MIT through the Summer Research Program. Her research focuses on parsing the effects of c-Jun kinase inhibitors&#8217; inflammatory responses in endometrial stromal cells, toward advancing drug treatment options for endometriosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Effect of c-Jun Kinase Inhibitors on Decidualization and<br>Inflammatory Response of Endometrial Stromal Cells<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Jada Okaikoi<sup>1<\/sup>, Laura Bahlmann<sup>2<\/sup>, Stephen Palmer<sup>3<\/sup>, Douglas Lauffenburger<sup>2<\/sup> and<br>Linda Griffith<sup>2<\/sup><\/strong><br><sup>1<\/sup>Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Nevada Reno<br><sup>2<\/sup>Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br><sup>3<\/sup>Baylor College of Science<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Endometriosis, affecting 10% of girls and women worldwide, involves the growth of<br>endometrial tissue outside the uterus, leading to chronic inflammation and other symptoms.<br>Recent studies in animal models have demonstrated that c-Jun kinase inhibitors (JNKi) can<br>decrease the size and volume of endometriosis lesions; however, the effect of JNKi on<br>patients remains unclear due to a lack of relevant models. We quantified the effects of five<br>c-Jun kinase inhibitors on patient endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) isolated from biopsies<br>collected during surgical procedures. ESCs were stimulated with progesterone or IL1-\u03b2 (to<br>induce inflammation) and treated with the drugs. Media was collected and prolactin, IL8,<br>and IL6 were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Preliminary results<br>indicate that each drug has nuanced effects on ESC phenotype. Future work will focus on<br>the investigation of these drug compounds in our humanized lesion models of endometriosis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3805,"template":"","profile_category":[22],"class_list":["post-3892","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2024-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/3892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/3892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4935,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/3892\/revisions\/4935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=3892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}