Research

Our overarching goal is to understand the mechanisms of ovarian aging. If the pathways that regulate ovarian aging are deciphered, targeted treatment strategies can be developed to reverse, retard or prevent that process. Better understanding of the process involved involved in ovarian function decline will also lead us to develop better ovarian aging markers that can be used to study.

• Identification of molecular pathways involved in human oocyte aging
• Identifying the mechanisms of age-induced decline in the DNA repair ability of oocytes and reversing this decline via gene- and epigenome-editing techniques
• Identification of pathways involved in primordial follicle growth initiation
• Developing pharmacologis approached to prevent follicle death and wastage induced by chemotherapy and aging
• In vitro growth of primordial follicles to provide a supply of gametes to young females who have cryopreserved their ovarian tissue but cannot have it transplanted due to medical risks
• Developing new markers of ovarian aging which can be utilized in clinical trials to track and treat reproductive senescence
• Delaying menopause by planned ovarian tissue freezing and peri-menopausal transplantation