October 16-17, 2025

University of Kansas Medical Center Campus
Health Education Building (HEB)
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
Kansas City, Kansas

Thursday, October 16, 2025

Health Education Building B104

1:15 p.m. – Registration Opens

2:00 p.m. – Trainee Elevator Pitch Session

3:00 p.m. – Keynote Lecture, Marisa Bartolomei, PhD
"DNA methylation reprogramming in the mammalian germline"

Health Education Building, Ad Astra 5202

4:20 p.m. – Reception and Poster Sessions

5:00 - 6:00 p.m. – Poster Session A

6:00 - 7:00 p.m. – Poster Session B

Friday, October 17, 2025

Health Education Building, Ad Astra 5202

7:30 a.m. – Breakfast

Health Education Building B104

8:30 a.m. – Registration

8:45 a.m. – Welcome / Morning Announcements

Session I

8:50 - 10:20 a.m. 

• Plenary Lecture, Neil Hunter, PhD
  "Cohesin and Chromosome Segregation in Oocytes: A Goldilocks Scenario"
• Trainee Lecture, Edgar Soto-Moreno, MS, University of Missouri-Columbia
  “Spindle-localized F-actin regulates polar MTOC organization and the fidelity of meiotic spindle formation”
• Plenary Lecture, Eszter Posfai, PhD
  "Insights into mammalian germline cyst formation and function using live imaging"
• Trainee Lecture, Namrata Roy, MS, University of Kansas Medical Center
  “WWTR1 controls human extravillous trophoblast development by governing mitochondrial integrity and function”

10:20 - 10:50 a.m. – Morning Break

Session II

10:50 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.

• Plenary Lecture, Shuo Xiao, MBBS, PhD
  "Ovarian protectant to safeguard reproductive health in young female cancer patients"
• Trainee Lecture, Bunmi Owolabi,MS, University of Nebraska Medical Center
  “Metabolic and mitochondrial dysfunction in human granulosa cells from poor IVF responders"
• Plenary Lecture, Stephen Renaud, PhD
  "Endoplasmic reticulum stress in the placenta: From development to disease"
• Trainee Lecture, Dhanvika Mopure, DVM, University of Missouri-Columbia
  “Uncovering regeneration of uterine glandular epithelium through targeted ablation and lineage tracing"

Health Education Building, Ad Astra 5202

12:20 - 2:00 p.m. – Lunch (including Speaker-Trainee Lunch Interactions)

Health Education Building B104

2:00 p.m. – Trainee Awards Presentation

Session III

2:10 - 3:40 p.m.

• Plenary Lecture, Liang Ma, PhD
  "Steroid hormones regulating female reproductive tract homeostasis"
• Trainee Lecture, Changyong Lee, PhD, University of Nebraska Medical Center
  “Integrative network and experimental analysis reveal protective effects of kaempferol against PFDA-induced granulosa cell dysfunction”
• Trainee Lecture, Savannah L. Speckhart, PhD, University of Kansas Medical Center
  “Leukemia inhibitory factor modulates extravillous trophoblast cell differentiation”
• Plenary Lecture, Eldin Jašarević, PhD
  "Distant guardians of the reserve: A role for microbial metabolites in mammalian reproductive longevity"

3:40 p.m. – Closing Remarks / Meeting Adjourned