MRC Centre for Reproductive Health

Evan Simpson, Associate

Ronnie.grant@ed.ac.uk — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:38:04 +0000

Evan Simpson is an associate of the Centre and is Professor at Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research (PHI) in Australia. Evan will be a symposium speaker at the 18th International Conference on Cytochrome P450 in Seattle, 18-22nd June 2013, and at the ESHRE conference in London, 7-10th July in London. He is also on the new JOE Editorial Advisory Board.

You may view Evan’s PHI page by clicking here »

PhD student’s paper for Endocrinology

Ronnie.grant@ed.ac.uk — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:20:08 +0000

Congratulations to PhD student Fiona Connolly. Her paper, to be published in Endocrinology next month, has been seen as important enough to merit a news and views commentary in the journal which may be viewed here ». Fiona is part of the Colin Duncan team.

News from the Richard Sharpe Group

Ronnie.grant@ed.ac.uk — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:32:08 +0000

Congratulations are due to several team members (and our collaborative colleagues):

Karen Kilcoyne receiving her
poster prize at the BES meeting.

To Sander van den Driesche on the award of an Early Career Development grant from the Society for Endocrinology.
To Karen Kilcoyne for winning a poster prize at the British Endocrine Societies meeting in Harrogate in March.
To Rod Mitchell and Sander van den Driesche for winning a poster prize at the British Endocrine Societies meeting in Harrogate in March.
To Laura Kennedy (medical student) for being the overall winner of her category at the National Student Association of Medical Research for her poster that described the results from her 4th year research project in our group.
To all team members, but especially to Afshan Dean for recent acceptance of new manuscripts for publication, details of which will appear on Prof Richard Sharpe’s page shortly.

Grant success heralds new era in Imaging

Ronnie.grant@ed.ac.uk — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:15:13 +0000

Scientists at Little France have been awarded £1.7 million for a grant entitled ‘Integrated multi-dimensional molecular organ imaging’. The award was made by the MRC as part of an initiative to support the establishment of sustainable and innovative optical imaging platforms across the UK. The lead PI on the grant is Professor Jeffrey Pollard with Co-Is being Dr Rolly Wiegand and Professors Brophy, Grant, Mullins and Saunders. This grant will allow the establishment of a state-of-the art imaging facility in the basement of the QMRI and will catalyse new research directions building on existing strengths in optical imaging.

Centre Professor at the House of Commons

p.saunders@ed.ac.uk — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:22:11 +0000

Professor Nicola Gray was able to talk with the Chair of the Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology, Andrew Miller, when she attended a Parliamentary Reception at the House of Commons on December 12^th. The remit of the Science and Technology Committee (http://www.parliament.uk/science/) is to ensure that Government policy and decision-making are based on good scientific and engineering advice and evidence. Professor Gray was invited to the reception in her capacity as a member of the Council of the Biochemical Society.

Graduation of MSc Reproductive Sciences students

Ronnie.grant@ed.ac.uk — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:12:35 +0000

Here is a group photo, unfortunately incomplete, of the MSc by Research in Reproductive Sciences students who attended graduation on Friday 30th November. We didn’t manage to get everyone together in the rush for the photograph. Best wishes also to the graduates who were unable to attend. Here (left to right) are Zaniah (from Columbia), Maria (Mexico), Lilli (Germany), Sevi (Greece), Jenny (Scotland) and Urhan (China). Also graduating, but not in the photo are Alemselam
(Ethiopia), Hong (China), Sahar and Araz (Iran) and Ioannis (Greece).
Congratulations to you all.

Centre appoints New Director

p.saunders@ed.ac.uk — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:12:58 +0000

Professor Jeffrey Pollard will formally take up appointment as Director of the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health with effect from 17th December 2012. Professor Pollard is currently Director of the Centre for the Study of Reproductive Biology and Women’s Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where he holds the Louis Goldstein Swan Chair in Women’s Cancer Research will be arriving in Edinburgh in early-mid January 2013. Professor Pollard has a distinguished track record with more than 200 publications including several papers in Nature, JCI and PNAS. He has unique expertise in vivo imaging, a superb range of innovative mouse models as well as a strong history of international collaborations. His current research is summarised at [http://www.einstein.yu.edu/faculty/3865/jeffrey-pollard/]. Inaugural Director Professor Philippa Saunders commented ‘I believe Professor Pollard’s appointment marks the start of a new and exciting era for MRC-CRH and I am very much looking forward to working with him both in my capacity as a PI within the Centre and as Director of Postgraduate Research for CMVM’.

MRC website link http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Newspublications/News/MRC008930

Successful Grant Applications

p.saunders@ed.ac.uk — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:10:06 +0000

Congratulations to Dr Laura O’Hara (a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr Lee Smith’s group), who has been awarded a prestigious Society for Endocrinology Early Career Grant. Laura will use her first independent grant funding to explore the role of androgen signalling in the male pituitary.

Congratulations to Dr Rod Mitchell who has been awarded a prestigious 4 year Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship for his innovative studies entitled ‘The Germ Stem Cell Niche in the Human Fetal Testis and the Origins of Testicular Cancer’. Rod will take up his fellowship on 1st October 2012.

Well done to Drs Lee Smith and Pamela Brown who have been awarded US$ 609,469 by the Found Animals Foundation Inc. for their novel proposal entitled ‘Sterilization via disruption of androgen signaling in Sertoli and Granulosa cells’.

Congratulation to the MSc by Research in Reproductive Sciences students

Ronnie.grant@ed.ac.uk — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:01:53 +0000

We would like to warmly congratulate the MSc by Research in Reproductive Sciences students, for successfully completing the programme. They are a truely global group – from China, Columbia, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, Iran, Mexico, and Scotland – you see them here at the end of their three day trip to the University Field Station in the Scottish Highlands. Several are staying on in Edinburgh to do PhDs, but especially for the ones moving on to new challenges – best wishes, and keep in touch.

Centre Scientists Appointed to BBSRC Pool of Experts

p.saunders@ed.ac.uk — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:54:20 +0000

Programme Leaders Nicola Gray and Lee Smith have both been appointed to the BBSRC Pool of Experts. Experts are called upon to join wider BBSRC Research Committees, contributing their specialist knowledge and expertise to facilitate funding decisions on relevant grant applications submitted to the BBSRC.