Dr Lord is an ARC DECRA fellow at the Priority Research Centre for Reproductive Science, University of Newcastle, where she has been leading a research group since 2019. Her research aims to characterise molecular pathways that regulate testicular stem cell function and apply this knowledge to bring important spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) technologies to fruition. One potential application of such technologies is the reversal of infertility in survivors of childhood cancers.
Unfortunately, approximately 50% of male survivors of childhood cancers will be rendered permanently infertile because of chemotherapy- or radiotherapy-induced destruction of SSCs. Further, unlike adult men, pre-pubertal patients are not able to produce a semen sample for cryopreservation, so currently have no options to safeguard their future fertility. In these circumstances, cryopreservation of a testis biopsy, followed by transplantation of captured SSCs back into the patients’ testes in adulthood, may be a potentially feasible alternative. However, advances in our fundamental knowledge of these cells are required to translate such experimental techniques into the clinic. During her time as a postdoctoral researcher at Washington State University, Dr Lord designed a novel, high-throughput pipeline to screen >1400 transcription factors for a role in regulating SSC function. Of putative candidates identified, three have been further characterised (thus far), revealing an important role in regeneration of spermatogenesis by SSCs after chemotherapy. Additionally, through the manipulation of molecular pathways identified in these experiments, Dr Lord has more recently made advances in maintaining SSCs in in vitro culture as a precursor to transplantation treatments (NHMRC Ideas grant funded project). Findings stemming from this research have the potential to significantly impact the wellbeing of paediatric cancer survivors.