Yi Athena Ren

Research Focus

The Ren lab aims to apply innovative biotechnologies and principles of systems biology to tackle open questions in these areas:

• Ovarian physiology. We seek to answer important questions in ovarian biology from two angles. First, to understand fundamental molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms that are crucial for ovarian function/dysfunction and female fertility/infertility. Insights along this line promise to translate into preventive and therapeutic interventions to improve women’s reproductive health. And second, as female reproductive tissues are among few places in adult life to go through drastic and cyclic construction and deconstruction, we are also curious to explore the ovary as a unique model for probing mechanisms underlying tissue homeostasis and remodeling under hormonal control. Such knowledge may provide mechanisms that are applicable to other biological process such as hormonally sensitive tumorigenesis.
• Developmental programing of health and diseases (DoHAD) of ovarian function and reproductive health. Early-life environment and events often have long-term impact on the health and diseases of an individual (developmental programming). The effect and mechanism of such impact vary depending on the type of early-life perturbation, the critical developmental time window, the specific tissue/organ, and the interaction between these factors. Our research aims to address both the long-term impact and the mechanism of early-life disruptions, such as metabolic and endocrine, on ovarian function.  We hope our studies will serve as natural experiments to further the understanding of normal physiology, as well provide a foundation for effective reversal of adverse effects. 

Presentations and Activities

• “New Blood, New Life: Remodeling of ovarian vasculature for successful ovulation.” UT South Western, Dallas, TX, April 15th, 2024. Invited talk.
• “The Matrix: Reimagine the mammalian ovary as an engineering quest.” Engineering for Reproductive Medicine Symposium, Cornell University, October 26th, 2023. Ithaca, NY. Keynote speaker.
• "From Gene Regulation to Physiology: Orchestration of Time and Space in Mammalian Ovulation." Tri-Repro Symposium, Cornell University, April 2023, Ithaca, NY. Keynote Speaker.
• “Cattle CoRSIVS: Novel epigenetic markers for improving reproductive performance in dairy cattle”. NE2227, USDA Multistate Annual Meeting, May 2023, State College, Pennsylvania.
• "Mice with Patched1 deletion in pituitary folliculo-stellate cells exhibit adult onset hypogonadotropic hypogonadism". 51th Annual Meeting, Society for the Study of Reproduction, New Orleans, USA, (July 2018). 51st Annual Meeting. July 2018. Society for the Study of Reproduction. New Orleans, LA. Talk.