Stefanie Williams

Profile

RESEARCH SUMMARY: The successful completion of meiosis results in haploid gametes (i.e. eggs and sperm) and is essential for sexual reproduction. For humans, failure in doing so may result in infertility, miscarriages and children born with chromosome aneuploidies such as trisomy 21, Klinefelter syndrome, Turner syndrome and others. I will establish Nematostella vectensis as a new meiosis research organism as their ability to produce hundreds of gametes upon simple temperature and light cues enable a novel way to study meiotic processes.