Better treatments for infertility

For people trying to start or build a family, infertility is a devastating diagnosis. UCLA’s Amander Clark, a reproductive scientist and internationally recognized stem cell biologist, is working to change that.

Clark has spent her career studying the reproductive organs and the process by which stem cells in the body transform into germ cells, the precursors of egg and sperm cells. The goal, she says, is to better understand the biological basis of people’s reproductive health and fertility and, ultimately, to create functioning egg and sperm cells in the lab by reprogramming a person’s own stem cells — offering hope to the 1 in 6 people worldwide who struggle with infertility.

Her ongoing research to improve treatments for infertility have already led to breakthroughs that could make the process of in vitro fertilization more efficient and less painful and improve the viability of implanted embryos.

Most recently, Clark and her team developed the first comprehensive “road map” showing how the ovarian reserve forms in primates, providing crucial insights into women’s health that could revolutionize treatments for infertility and hormonal disorders such as polycystic ovary syndrome. That reserve — the lifetime supply of eggs that a woman is born with — serves not only as the foundation for reproduction but also as the driver of hormone production in the ovaries. Despite governing so many crucial aspects of women’s health, how this finite supply of eggs actually develops has remained largely a mystery until now.

“It’s what enables women to become mothers, girls to progress through puberty, and it acts like a biological clock counting down to menopause,” said Clark, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology and director of the UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education. “We now have a complete manual that could help scientists create more accurate human ovarian models to better study ovarian disease and dysfunction and develop better treatment options for those who suffer from infertility.”

“Infertility is a significant health concern. It deserves our attention,” says Clark, whose National Institutes of Health funding for her research on the ovarian reserve was recently suspended. That funding freeze, she says, is a blow to efforts to explore undiscovered areas of reproductive and women’s health and to potentially revolutionize infertility care.

“The United States has long understood that fundamental, basic science is the foundation that leads to cures and to furthering the frontier of knowledge,” she says. “What I feel is being taken away is the capacity to dream as a scientist.”