Assistant Professor
University of Southern California
My early training was in embryo culture, transfer and cryopreservation in cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. After completing a master’s degree in animal science at Iowa State University, I moved to Boston and worked as Research Associate with John Biggers. My initial research lab was at the New England Regional Primate Center where I developed one of the first in vitro follicle culture systems using Matrigel. When that project ended, I merged the lab into Dr Biggers main lab space at Harvard Medical School where we conducted the studies to develop KSOM culture media and mouse IVF protocols, determined the cause of reproduction failure in several mutant mouse lines (CCND2, YY1, WT1), and developed a novel method for desiccation and dry preservation of sperm. I decided to return to graduate school to pursue a PhD and was accepted into Dr. David Albertini's lab at Tufts Medical School. After 1 year, the lab group moved to the University of Kansas Medical School in Kansas City where I graduated with a PhD in Molecular Physiology and completed two post-doc positions with Drs. William H Kinsey and Lane Christenson. In 2015, I started my own research lab in the Department of OBGYN, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) at the University of Southern California. Our lab is situated within the USC Norris Cancer Center and our primary research focuses on the effects of long-term chemotherapeutics (tamoxifen and imatinib) on cancer survivors outlook to have children in their future. I am director of research for the REI fellowship program, work with the REI clinical fellows on their research and have a close association with USC-HRC Fertility clinics.