Germ cell pluripotency control: developmental mechanisms underlying fertility and disease

Presented by Dr Cassy Spiller, Career Track Award

Dr Spiller has been a postdoc with A/Prof Josephine Bowles at SBMS since 2016, researching the normal and malignant development of germ cells. She has trained with, and has ongoing collaboration with world leaders in testicular cancer biology based in Denmark (Copenhagen University Hospital) and The Netherlands (Erasmus Medical Centre and Princess Maxima Centre for Paediatric Oncology). She studies germ cell pluripotency pathways with a translational focus of developing diagnostic screening methods for testis cancer. Her research is supported by the NHMRC, ARC, Cancer Council Queensland, UQ and the Queensland Government. She was awarded SBMS Career Track Fellow in 2019.
 
Cassy received a BSc (Hons) in Biotechnology at the University of Newcastle in the reproductive laboratory of Prof John Aitken studying receptor mediated signalling in spermatozoa. She moved to UQ for PhD studies in developmental reproduction, investigating fetal germ cell cycle control with Prof Peter Koopman at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (2009).