Rate My Professor Rohan Lewis

Professor Rohan Lewis is Professor of Placental and Integrative Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton, where he holds a PhD and has been a Fellow of The Physiological Society since 2017. He leads the Placental Research Laboratory, applying an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to investigate placental function. His team combines laboratory studies of nutrient transport and metabolism with advanced multiscale 3D imaging and computational modeling to understand how the placenta supports healthy fetal growth and protects against toxins. This work explores interactions between placental mechanisms to support successful pregnancies. The group participates in large-scale population studies, including the Southampton Women’s Survey and the MAVIDOS study, to examine how environmental factors influence placental development and long-term offspring health. Research themes encompass placental evolution across species to inform human pregnancy disorders, ultrastructural nanopores and membrane transporters forming the placental barrier, and endometrial factors in subfertility and miscarriage using 3D imaging and transcriptomics.

Lewis has delivered numerous invited lectures, including keynotes on placental adaptations and outcomes, and talks on 3D imaging, computational modeling, and multimodal correlative imaging for placental function. He serves as Council Member for the International Federation of Placenta Associations and has acted as External Examiner. His laboratory has received funding from BBSRC, Leverhulme Trust, MRC, and Wellbeing of Women for projects on the placental exposome, convergent evolution of placental villi, nanoscale imaging, amino acid and xenobiotic transport, and spatial biology platforms. Key publications include 'From mice to rhinos: whole-organ quantification of 3D mammalian placental structure using correlative multiscale imaging' (2026, Placenta), 'Placental crises: disruptive selection and maternal under-investment as the foundations of mammalian placental evolution and dysfunction' (2026, Biological Reviews), 'Gastroschisis associated changes in the placental transcriptome' (2024, Placenta), 'Ultrastructural cilia defects in multi-ciliated uterine glandular epithelial cells from women with reproductive failure' (2024, Reproduction), and 'Placental evolution from a three-dimensional and multiscale structural perspective' (2024, Evolution). He also received the Excellence in Reviewing award from Placenta journal in 2014. Lewis teaches physiology to medical students across BM4, BM5, and BM6 courses and contributes to placental biology modules.