Assistant Professor
University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus
Aurora, Colorado, United States
Jen McKey is a developmental and reproductive biologist at the University of Colorado. Jen grew up in France and received her undergraduate and graduate training at the University of Montpellier. Her thesis work focused
on development of the gastric smooth muscle using the chicken embryo as a model organism. After graduating with a PhD in Developmental Biology, she joined the laboratory of Blanche Capel at Duke University Medical
Center in North Carolina. Jen’s postdoctoral work established an integrated framework for the study of the mouse ovary in its native context, revealed the dynamic morphogenesis of the perinatal ovary, and raised the
question of how external forces and surrounding tissues affect ovary morphogenesis and the establishment of ovarian subdomains. Jen was awarded an NIH pathway to Independence award (K99/R00) by the NICHD in
2021 to investigate the role of the rete ovarii in ovary development and adult homeostasis. Jen started her independent lab in the section of Developmental Biology of the department of Pediatrics at The University of
Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in January 2023. Research in her lab focuses on integrating ovary morphogenesis with ovarian differentiation, with the goal of uncovering fetal and perinatal determinants of
female fertility and reproductive longevity. In 2024, Jen received the Boettcher Webb-Waring new investigator award to support our research on the role of perinatal folliculogenesis in the establishment of the ovarian
reserve.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Building a molecular spatial blueprint of the developing mammalian ovary
Friday, August 1, 2025
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM EDT