January 2023
- A new OCDI publication:
Jiyang Zhang, Brittany A Goods, Pawat Pattarawat, Yingzheng Wang, Tessa Haining, Qiang Zhang, Alex K Shalek, Francesca E Duncan, Teresa K Woodruff, Shuo Xiao, An ex vivo ovulation system enables the discovery of novel ovulatory pathways and non-hormonal contraceptive candidates, Biology of Reproduction, 2023; ioad009, https://doi.org/10.1093/biolre/ioad009
December 2022
- On December 5, 2022, members from all projects of the OCDI met at Rutgers University for a site visit to Dr. Shuo Xiao’s laboratory. During the visit, members of the team visited Dr. Xiao’s facilities, learned more about the technologies used in the lab, and then participated in a day-long discussion about the OCDI research initiatives.
October 2022
- Grand Challenges Meeting
Dr. Duncan traveled to Brussels, Belgium to participate in the 2022 Grand Challenges meeting where she presented on behalf of the Ovarian Contraceptive Discovery Initiative which is funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She was joined by co-PIs Dr. Shuo Xiao and Dr. Amander Clark.
Her talks were:
"Ovarian Contraceptive Discovery Initiative - tools for illuminating ovarian biology." Nonhormonal Contraceptive Discovery Program Meeting. October 22-23, 2022.
"Complex biological systems for novel contraceptive discovery." Gates Grand Challenges Annual Meeting, October 25, 2022.
September 2022
- A new OCDI publication:
Converse A, Zaniker EJ, Amargant F, Duncan FE. Recapitulating folliculogenesis and oogenesis outside the body: encapsulated in vitro follicle growth. Biol Reprod. 2022 Sep 22:ioac176. doi: 10.1093/biolre/ioac176. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36136744.
August 2022
- A new OCDI publication:
Chen YY, Russo DD, Drake RS, Duncan FE, Shalek AK, Goods BA, Woodruff TK Single-cell transcriptomics of staged oocytes and somatic cells reveal novel regulators of follicle activation. Reproduction 2022 Aug 01;164(2):55-70. doi:10.1530/REP-22-0053
July 2022
- OCDI members attended and presented at the SSR 55th Annual Meeting in Spokane, WA during July 25-29, 2022!
- Dr. Amander Clark gave a talk titled, "Regenerating the Human Germline from Skin Punch Biopsies"
- Dr. Elnur Babayev presented a poster as a finalist for the post-doctoral competition titled, "Cumulus Cell Expansion and Extracellular Matrix Integrity are Impaired with Advanced Reproductive Age". Congratulations Elnur on receiving third place in the post-doctoral competition!
- Daniela Russo presented TWO posters: (1) "Validation of single follicle transcriptomic data to characterize primordial to primary follicle activation" and (2) "Identifying novel contraceptive drug targets using single-cell RNA sequencing"
- Dr. Jiyang Zhang gave a talk titled, "A 3D in vitro follicle growth system preserves molecular signatures of gonadotropin-dependent folliculogensis and enables the identification of ovarian toxicants"
- Emily Zaniker presented a poster as a finalist for the pre-doctoral competition titled, "Spatial Asymmetry in the Molecular Determinants of Ovarian Follicle Rupture". Congratulations Emily on receiving second place in the pre-doctoral competition!
- A new OCDI publication:
Suebthawinkul C, Babayev E, Zhou LT, Lee HC, Duncan FE Quantitative morphokinetic parameters identify novel dynamics of oocyte meiotic maturation and cumulus expansion. Biol Reprod 2022 Jul 08;. pii:ioac139
June 2022
- Emily Zaniker from project 2 presented a poster titled, "Investigating spatial asymmetry in the molecular determinants of ovarian follicle rupture for non-hormonal contraceptive discovery" at the 2022 GLC ASPET 35th Annual Meeting on Friday June 17, 2022 at Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL.
- Many congratulations to Emily for being awarded 1st place in the graduate level poster competition!
May 2022
- Members from project 2 had a great time presenting at the 2022 CRS Summit: Frontiers in Reproductive Science and Medicine!
- Chana Suebthawinkul presented an oral talk titled, "Mouse strains with natural variations in mean lifespan exhibit differences in oocyte morphological parameters and morphokinetic dynamics of meiotic maturation. Congratulations to Chana on receiving a prize for her talk!
- Hoi Chang Lee presented a poster titled, "Morphokinetic parameters of mouse egg activation and embryo development by ionomycin and SrCl2 use EmbryoScope+".
- Caroline Kratka presented a poster titled, "Pharmacologic inhibition of proprotein convertases alters the behavior of cumulus cells during mouse in vitro maturation".
- Tracy Zhou presented a poster titled, "Towards germ cell-specific in vivo genome editing: generating transgenic mice that express oocyte-specific Cas9".
- Emily Zaniker presented a poster titled, "Investigating spatial asymmetry in the molecular determinants of ovarian follicle rupture for non-hormonal contraceptive discovery".
- Daniela Russo from project 4 presented a poster titled, "Identifying novel contraceptive targets using single-cell RNA sequencing" at the Probing Human Disease Using Single-Cell Technologies Conference; May 13-16, 2022; Cancun, Mexico. Many congratulations to Daniela for also winning a poster prize as well!
April 2022
- Daniela Russo from project 4 presented a talk titled, "Validation of single follicle transcriptomic data to characterize primordial to secondary follicle development" at the NIH Contraceptive Research and Development Meeting on April 7, 2022
February 2022
- Dr. Shuo Xiao presented a talk titled, "A Small Follicle Tells a Big Story" for SSR's The Rising Stars in Reproductive Biology Webinar Series on February 16th, 2022.
