March inventor spotlight: Shannon Gillespie, PhD, RN

Name: Shannon Gillespie
College: Nursing
Department: Martha S. Pitzer Center for Women, Children and Youth
Research areas of focus: Maternal-infant immunobiology

Shannon Gillespie is working with Ohio State’s Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) to commercialize methods to detect and diagnose pre-term birth through clinical immunomonitoring.

“This invention could potentially enable the prediction of preterm labor which would allow timely medical intervention and targeted therapeutic treatments that could decrease perinatal morbidity and mortality,” says Panya Taysavang, associate director of licensing for health sciences at Ohio State.

“I became a nurse scientist so that I could find better ways for patients, families, clinicians and the healthcare system. I never imagined that our discoveries could improve more lives more quickly through technology and commercialization than through traditional means of disseminating research,” says Gillespie, who learned about TCO through the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship’s REACH for Commercialization program. “While this process can feel intimidating at first, I’ve always felt encouraged and supported, which allows me to focus on the people that we’re aiming to serve.”

Gillespie designs and tests new immunomonitoring methods to predict and prevent complications of pregnancy and postpartum, with special emphasis on preterm birth, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and prenatal and postpartum depression.

“My transition into nursing science was fueled by the loss of my mother at a young age and the realization that this occurred despite the best efforts of her clinical care team,” says Gillespie. “I’m now dedicating my career to finding better ways to care for patients and their families, to provide clinicians with better tools to deliver optimal care and to improve the healthcare system at large.”

Gillespie has recently taken advantage of the Accelerator Award program, which provides funding for technology development designed to accelerate the advancement of cutting-edge Ohio State innovations from the university into the marketplace. The funding awarded to her team will allow them to translate their scientific methods into methods that are appropriate for clinical care, accelerating the research pace and moving the technology to the bedside.

“I envision immunomonitoring becoming a standard of prenatal and postpartum care, and even care across many healthcare settings. The immune system is intricately interconnected with many disease processes and serves as a prime target to understand and address risk for each individual patient,” she adds.

Gillespie is an assistant professor in Ohio State’s College of Nursing. Her doctoral and early career research and training has spanned psychoneuroimmunology and clinical and translational immunobiology, allowing her team to examine maternal-infant immunobiology from a unique perspective. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ohio University, and her MS and PhD degrees in Nursing from Ohio State. Gillespie was recognized in 2020 and 2018 with the College of Nursing's Outstanding Researcher Award. Hear her speak about her research in this video from the College of Nursing.