About Our Lab
The female reproductive system is the first to age in the human body and will affect every single woman. Reproductive aging is characterized by a noticeable decline in egg quantity and quality beginning in women when they reach their mid-thirties and continuing until menopause. Female reproductive aging has significant health consequences as it results in endocrine function loss and is a leading cause of infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects. Reproductive aging has a large societal impact as women globally are delaying childbearing and many women of advanced reproductive age rely on Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) to conceive.
The Duncan Lab uses mammalian model systems (mouse, bovine, and human) to investigate the overarching hypothesis that deterioration of oocyte-intrinsic cellular pathways together with alterations in the ovarian environment underlie the age-associated decline in female gamete quantity and quality. Our research will improve the fertile-span and health-span across generations through discovery of novel cellular pathways for therapeutic interventions.
Publications
- Foley KG, Pritchard MT, Duncan FE Macrophage multinucleated giant cells: hallmarks of the aging ovary. Reproduction 2020 Dec 01;. doi:10.1530/REP-20-0489
- Amargant F, Manuel SL, Tu Q, Parkes WS, Rivas F, Zhou LT, Rowley JE, Villanueva CE, Hornick JE, Shekhawat GS, Wei JJ, Pavone ME, Hall AR, Pritchard MT, Duncan FE Ovarian stiffness increases with age in the mammalian ovary and depends on collagen and hyaluronan matrices. Aging Cell 2020 Nov;19(11):e13259. doi:10.1111/acel.13259
- Duncan FE, Schindler K, Schultz RM, Blengini CS, Stein P, Stricker SA, Wessel GM, Williams CJ Unscrambling the oocyte and the egg: clarifying terminology of the female gamete in mammals. Mol Hum Reprod 2020 11 01;26(11):797-800. doi:10.1093/molehr/gaaa066
- Hu Q, Duncan FE, Nowakowski AB, Antipova OA, Woodruff TK, O'Halloran TV, Wolfner MF Zinc Dynamics during Drosophila Oocyte Maturation and Egg Activation. iScience 2020 Jul 24;23(7):101275. pii:S2589-0042(20)30461-2