Webinars

Mechanical Regulation of Follicle Development and Aging
Speaker: Farners Amargant i Riera, Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine

Each tissue has specific mechanical properties that help regulate its function. We previously discovered that with aging, both mouse and human ovaries become stiff. However, whether follicles sense and respond to stiffness and affect folliculogenesis and oocyte quality remains unknown. We recently discovered that follicles are highly mechanosensitive and that stiffness alone can trigger hallmarks of ovarian aging in the follicle, including a fibroinflammatory phenotype. We are currently investigating which cells in the follicle sense and integrate mechanical cues from the environment, and the mechanisms by which these signals regulate ovarian function.

Regeneration in the uterus
Speaker: Kara McKinely, Harvard University

The development and characterization of our new transgenic mouse models of menstruation and our ongoing work to uncover the mechanisms that enable the endometrium to withstand repeated disruption of its epithelium during both menstruation and pregnancy.