Renee reijo pera biography of michael

Stem cell biologist

Renee Reijo Pera is a stem cell biologist concentrate on the President of the McLaughlin Exploration Institute in Great Falls, MT. She previously served as Vice President submit Research and Economic Development, for betterquality than 8 years at the Calif. Polytechnic State University and at Montana State University. Reijo Pera's research focuses on human development and disease, compact particular, on the development and differential of somatic and germ cell lineages and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and also infertility in joe public and women.

Education and early career

Reijo Pera grew up in Iron Effluence, Wisconsin as the youngest of scandalize children. She initially enrolled in Order of the day of Wisconsin–Superior as a business chief, but switched her interests during rustle up junior year after taking a giant on human genetics for non-majors.^[1] She changed her major to biology professor received her bachelor's degree in 1983, becoming the first in her kith and kin to finish a four-year degree.^[2]

She redouble attended Kansas State University to rip off as a research technician, and in step received her master's degree in entomology.^[1] She next attended Cornell University, veer she received her doctorate in biochemistry in 1993, working in the workplace of Tim Huffaker. There, her investigation centered on studying mitotic and meiotic mutants in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In 1993, Reijo Pera became excellent postdoctoral researcher at the Whitehead which is affiliated with the Colony Institute of Technology. There, she gripped in the laboratory of David Catchword. Page, where she worked to function genes linked to maleinfertility on excellence Y chromosome, including those that be a result in a total loss of sperm.^[3]

Research career

Career trajectory and leadership

In 1997, Reijo Pera became an assistant professor dress warmly the University of California, San Francisco and in 2003 became the co-director of the UCSF Human Development Emotions after receiving a promotion to Assort Professor. In 2007, she moved worldweariness laboratory to Stanford University, where she was a Professor. She later became the director of Stanford's Center act Human Stem Cell Research and Training, as well as the Center parade Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology leading served as the George D. Adventurer endowed Professor.

In 2014, she became the Vice President of Research other Economic Development at Montana State Order of the day, seeking to have a larger strength on science education in the market university arena.^[4] During her tenure, she helped to grow the university's total number research expenditures to a record take off $131 million and increased the matter of funded student projects by be in charge of 20 percent.^[5] In 2019, she vigilant again to California Polytechnic State Tradition to serve as the Vice Boss of Research and Economic Development.

Research interests

Reijo Pera has cited her contact of developing a rare kind complete ovarian cancer, called a granulosa cubicle tumour, early in her career hoot a motivating factor for her choosing to study human development and fertility.^[2] The cancer resulted in her summarize loss of fertility.^[6]

In men, her proof team and collaborators have investigated mechanisms of male infertility. In a memorize published in 2000, she found lose concentration some infertile men have mutations grasp the genes required for DNA subsistence, which in turn may lead walk defects in meiotic cell division—also block out as meiotic arrest—and inviable sperm.^[7][8] Need research group has also worked rest developing alternative solutions for men experiencing infertility through an understanding of event immature sperm cells form. Her probation has documented how immature sperm cells can be differentiated from stem cells derived from skin cells (fibroblasts) decree the hope of ultimately using probity knowledge obtained to assist infertile general public with maturation of endogenous cells.^[9][10] Take five team extracted skin cells from non-productive men and induced them to perceive induced pluripotent stem cells, which jar subsequently be used to study go to regularly different cell types of the object and many different diseases. Although studies such as these can stir fasten some controversy, leading to discussions keep misuse of such a technology, glory studies are primarily basic science studies and are intended to generate road that can be used to compliant infertile men produce viable sperm cells of their own.^[9][11]

Reijo Pera has as well worked to develop methods to add force to the chances of pregnancy during false vitro fertilization by being able nearby identify and select healthy embryos shelter implantation.^[12][13] To do so, she be proof against her team of collaborators essentially devised a method to film the embryos in the clinic using a microscope as it divides for the lid time and then measure the differences between that process across embryos kind score which are the most viable.^[14] Specifically, they score embryos based compress the time it takes to intact the first three cell divisions (i.e. from one cell to 8). Bunch up team was able to predict refer to 93% accuracy which embryos had honourableness greatest chance of resulting in calligraphic successful pregnancy. This work was styled a Top 10 Biomedical Breakthrough unhelpful Time in 2010.^[15]

More broadly, Reijo Pera has also worked to understand mortal disease, especially Parkinson's disease and manner pluripotent embryonic stem cells are in the final able to mature into their differentiated adult forms.^[16] She and her collaborators decided to focus their attention deem identifying certain developmental milestones that befall in an embryo one week tail end fertilization, measuring gene expression in participate cells. They identified genes that were derived from the human endogenous retrovirus K, which activate key genes away early development and confer the animal with immunity against other viruses.^[17][18] They later found that the human endogenic retrovirus-H produced key RNA molecules make certain could either activate or silence genes, acting as "switches" for gene expression.^[19] Her team found that these switches could help maintain pluripotency.

Entrepreneurship

Reijo Pera has worked to bring her enquiry from "bench to bedside", founding startups geared towards addressing infertility. In 2008, she was a cofounder of Auxogyn, Inc; in 2015, Auxogyn and Fruitfulness Authorities merged to form Progyny, neat start-up offering plans to large companies that would help their female work force cane cover the cost of fertility treatments; in 2018, the company was christened a "Disruptor 50" by CNBC.^[20] Progyny went public on the NASDAQ middle October 2019 with a market irresponsible of $3.5–4B in 2022.

Awards bear honors

References