Castillo-Castrejon Lab

Marisol Castillo-Castrejon, PhD
Assistant Professor

Lab focus

The Castillo-Castrejon Lab investigates how early-life nutrition, metabolic exposures, and hormonal transitions shape health trajectories across the lifespan, with a particular focus on women’s health. Guided by the vision that nutritional and endocrine factors during critical life stages—from gestation through menopause—profoundly influence metabolic, reproductive, and aging outcomes, our research seeks to identify the biological mechanisms that determine long-term health and disease risk.

Led by Dr. Marisol Castillo-Castrejon, our program integrates clinical studies, preclinical models, and molecular approaches to uncover how nutrition, metabolism, and hormonal signaling interact to regulate immune and metabolic function. By bridging experimental and translational research, we aim to generate actionable insights into the mechanisms driving women’s health disparities and chronic disease risk.

Our research is organized around three interconnected themes:

Menopause, immune aging, and metabolic dysfunction– uncovering how estrogen loss alters immune regulation and promotes inflammation and metabolic disease in midlife women.
Developmental origins of reproductive aging– investigating how adverse intrauterine exposures influence ovarian aging, fertility, and the timing of menopause across generations.
Placental function and fetal programming– defining how maternal obesity and diabetes disrupt placental nutrient signaling pathways and shape offspring metabolic health trajectories.

Why it matters

Our goal is to identify key biological determinants that shape women’s health across their lifespan. Through this work, we aim to develop targeted nutritional and immunometabolic interventions to extend healthspan, improve reproductive longevity, and reduce the burden of chronic disease in women.

Faculty Bio

Marisol Castillo-Castrejon, PhD

Assistant Professor
Section of Experimental Pathology
Harold Hamm Diabetes Center

2000 - 2005 Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico, BSc, Nutrition & Food Sciences
2006 - 2008 National Autonomous University of Mexico, MSc, Biological Sciences
2009 - 2014 National Autonomous University of Mexico, PhD, Biological Sciences
2014 - 2016 University of Michigan, Postdoctoral Training, Epidemiology & Reproductive Toxicology
2017 - 2020 University of Colorado, Postdoctoral Training, Reproductive Sciences

Honors, Recognition, Awards

2014 - 2024 Member Level 1
National Research Member, Sistema Nacional de Investigadores
National Board for Scientific Research, Mexico
2011 Rebecca James Baker Memorial Prize
International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, USA
2008 Summa Cum Laude, Master in Biological Sciences Program
National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico
2024 SRI President's Presenter's Award - Early Career Researcher
2022 SRI Underrepresented Minorities Program Travel Award
2019 Finalist of the Elsevier Trophoblast Research New Investigator Award
International Federation of Placenta Associations (IFPA)
2019 NIH New Investigator Travel Award
International Federation of Placenta Associations

Publications

Castillo-Castrejon M, Sankofi BM, Murguia SJ, Udeme AA, Cen HH, Xia YH, Thomas NS, Berry WL, Jones KL, Richard VR, Zahedi RP, Borchers CH, Johnson JD, Wellberg EA. FGF1 supports glycolytic metabolism through the estrogen receptor in endocrine-resistant and obesity-associated breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res. (2023) Aug 22;25(1):99. doi:10.1186/s13058-023-01699-0. PMID: 37608351

Castillo-Castrejon M, McClurg HE, Maxted MF, Myers DA, Jonscher KR. A Role for the Antioxidants Coenzyme Q10 and Pyrroloquinoline Quinone in Mitigating Obesity-Associated Reproductive Dysfunction†. Biol Reprod. (2025) Aug 14:ioaf185. doi: 10.1093/biolre/ioaf185. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40810470.

Powell TL, Ferchaud-Roucher V, Madi L, Uhlson C, Zemski-Berry K, Kramer AC, Erickson K, Palmer C, Chassen SS, Castillo-Castrejon M. Synthesis of phospholipids in human placenta. Placenta. (2024) Jan 21;147:12-20. doi: 10.1016/j.placenta.2024.01.007. PMID: 38278000.

Castillo-Castrejon M, Yamaguchi K, Rodel RL, Erickson K, Kramer A, Hirsch NM, Heiss K, Jansson T, Barbour LA, Powell TL. Effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus on placental expression and activity of nutrient transporters and their association with birth weight and neonatal adiposity. Mol Cell Endocrinol (2021) May 11;111319. doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2021.111319. PMID: 33989714

Castillo-Castrejon M, Yang I, Davidson E, Borengasser SJ, Jambal P, Westcott J, Kemp J, Garces A, Ali S, Saleem S, Goldenberg RL, Figueroa L, Hambidge M, Krebs NF, Powell TL. Preconceptional lipid-based nutrient supplementation in 2 low-resource countries resulted in distinctly different IGF-1/mTOR placental responses. J Nutr. (2021) Mar 11;151(3):556-569. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxaa354. PMID: 33382407

Current Funding

2025-22028 Cellular and Molecular GeroScience CoBRE Phase II (P20GM125528)
The Role of B Cell Estrogen Signaling in Menopause-Associated Metabolic Dysfunction.
PI: Sonntag, RPL: Castillo-Castrejon

2023-2026 Harold Hamm Foundation
Contribution of B cells to obesity and menopause-associated diabetes risk
PI: Castillo-Castrejon

2023 - 2026 Center for Advancement of Science & Technology, OCAST-HR23
Reduced B cell estrogen signaling contributes to menopause-associated weight gain
PI: Castillo-Castrejon

2023- 2030 NIHCD U54HD113173
Center for Indigenous Resilience, Culture, and Maternal Health Equity (CIRCLE )
MPIs: Shreffler (Contact)/Friedman/Spicer/VanWagoner, Co-I: Castillo-Castrejon

2024 - 2029 R01 DK129443
Evaluating PQQ for preventing maternal obesity-induced fetal programming of juvenile NAFLD in Papio Anubis
PI: Jonscher, Castillo-Castrejon

2023-2026 PHF-TS-PY01
Development of a Baboon (Papio Anubis) Model of Western Diet and Paternal Obesity-Mechanisms for Fetal/Offspring Epigenetic Programming of Metabolic Disorders
PI: Myers, Co-I: Castillo-Castrejon

Contact Information

Phone: (405) 271-8000 ext 35551

Email: marisol-castillocastrejon@ou.edu

Mailing address:
975 NE 10th St.,
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Office location: BRC 462

Lab location: BRC 458

PubMed Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/marisol.castillo-castrejon.1/bibliography/public/