2021-   Dean of Research, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine - Montana Campus; Great Falls, MT

2021- President, McLaughlin Research Institute; Great Falls, MT

2008- Co-Founder, Scientific Advisor for clinical trials and strategy, Board of Directors; Auxogyn, Inc, a venture-backed startup generated in the Reijo Pera laboratory. Note: Auxogyn was merged with a second startup in 2014 to form Progyny in 2014. (IPO, October, 2019; current market cap >$5.0B)

2019-2021  Vice President for Research, Economic Development and Graduate Education; California Polytechnic State University; San Luis Obispo, CA 

2013-2019  Vice President for Research, Economic Development and Graduate Education; Professor of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Montana State University

2007-2013  George D Smith Professor of Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine; Stanford University; Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Professor inhe Department of Genetics and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Director, Center for Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology; Director, Center for Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Research and Education

1997-2007  Assistant, Associate and Full Professor; University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Department of Physiology, Department of Urology; Institute for Human Genetics; Institute for Regeneration Medicine (formerly Development and Stem Cell Biology),Program in Cancer Genetics             

Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (2015-present);
George D Smith Endowed Chair in Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University (2012-2014);
Time Magazine’s Top 10 Biomedical Breakthroughs (2010);
Newsweek 20 Influential Women in America (2006);
Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters (University of Wisconsin – Superior; 2009);
Stanford President’s Office Faculty Fellows - Stanford University (2010-2012);
Executive Council, Association of Public & Landgrant Universities (APLU) Council on Research Host, Annual APLU Council on Research and Commission on Information, Measurement and Analysis held in Bozeman, MT (2018);
Shulman Award in Health Research; University of Pittsburg (2011);
IVI International Award for Career Impact (2011);
Australian Society for Reproductive Biology Founder’s Award (2010); Keiser Biology Award – Ohio Northern University (2010);
ASRM Bruce Stewart Research Award (2007);
UCSF:Coro Center for Leadership Training Award (2006);
University of California (UCSF) Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award (2005);
American Stem Cell Research Foundation Award (2004);
Searle Scholar (September 1998-2001); Sandler Award in Basic Science (UCSF, 1999-2000);
Innovations in Basic Science Award (UCSF, 1998-9);
Damon Runyon/Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellowship (Whitehead Institute at MIT; 1993-6);
U.S. Army Biotechnology Graduate Fellowship (1991-1993);
Cornell Outstanding Teacher Award (1988);
Cornell Graduate Travel Award (1988); DuPont Teaching Fellow (1989);
Sigma Xi Research Excellence Award (1985);
Lakehead Pipeline Association Scholarship (1982);
Magne Cum Laude Honors (1983)

Parkinson’s disease

We have a long-standing interest in Parkinson’s disease linked to our quest to understand human development and the impacts on human disease.  Over the last several years, we have published several firsts in PD research including the first report of generation of phenotypes in vitro in PD iPSC-derived neurons carrying LRRK2 and SNCA triplication mutations and collaborative studies that report novel neuroimaging of neurons derived from iPSCs to directly assess function in vivo. 

HN Nguyen, Byers B, Cord B, Shcheglovitov A, Byrne J, Gujar P, Kee K, Schuele B, Dolmetsch RE, Langston W, Palmer TD, and Reijo Pera RA (2011) LRRK2 mutant iPSC-Derived DA neurons demonstrate increased susceptibility to oxidative stress. Cell Stem Cell 8: 1–14. PMCID: PMC3578553

Byers B, Lee HJ, Liu J, Weitz AJ, Lin P, Zhang P, Shcheglovitov A, Dolmetsch R, Reijo Pera RA, Lee JH (2015) Direct in vivo assessment of human stem cell graft-host neural circuits. Neuroimage 114, 328-37. PMCID: PMC5573170

N Xia, F Fang, P Zhang, J Cui, C Tep-Cullison, T Hamerley, HJ Lee, T Palmer, B Bothner, JH Lee, RA Reijo Pera (2017). Characterization of dopaminergic neurons derived from a tyrosine hydroxylase reporter stem cell line. Cell Reports 18, 2533-46. PMCID: N/A

J Cui, J Carey, RA Reijo Pera (2022) Identification of DOT1L inhibitor in a screen for factors that promote dopaminergic neuron survival. Frontiers Aging Neuroscience 14; PMCID: PMC9791259.

Cell fate in xenotransplantation

Via use of xenotransplantation, our laboratory, was the first to demonstrate the potential to reprogram somatic cells to iPSCs and use the in vivo niche to direct development for basic and translational studies. Limitations of human germ cell development in vitro, combined with a unique hypothesis regarding the similarities of pluripotent stem cells and primordial germ cells, prompted us to probe the utility of xenotransplantation to mice for promotion of germ cell development in vitro.  These studies demonstrated documented for the first time that the murine seminiferous tubule niche efficiently directs human germ cell fate and that tumorigenesis is suppressed by reprogramming of somatic cells to iPSCs with the inclusion of VASA.

Durruthy Durruthy J, Ramathal C, Sukhwani M, Fang F, Cui J, Orwig KE, Reijo Pera RA (2014) Fate of induced pluripotent stem cells following transplantation to murine seminiferous tubules. Human Molecular Genetics 23, 3071-84. PMCID: PMC4030765

C Ramathal, J Durruthy-Durruthy, M Sukhwani, JE Arakaki, PJ Turek, KE Orwig & Reijo Pera RA (2014) Fate of iPSCs derived from azoospermic and fertile men following xenotransplantation to seminiferous tubules.  Cell Reports 7, 1284-97. PMCID: PMC4283769

Dominguez AA, Chiang HR, Sukhwani M, Orwig KE, Reijo Pera RA (2014) Human germ cell formation in xenotransplants of induced pluripotent stem cells carrying X chromosome aneuploidies. Scientific Reports 4, 6432.  PMCID: PMC4170197

Ramathal C, Angulo B, Sukhwani M, Cui J, Durruthy Durruthy J, Fang F, Schanes P, Turek PJ, Orwig KE and Reijo Pera RA (2015) DDX3Y gene rescue of a Y chromosome AZFa deletion restores germ cell formation and transcriptional programs.  Scientific Reports 5, 15041. PMCID: PMC4170197

Translational genetics and the human and mouse germ cell lineage

Having identified primate-specific genes that map to the human Y chromosome in my postdoctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, when I started my independent laboratory, I sought to develop a robust genetic system to probe gene function in human specific aspects of development and compare them to murine development.  My laboratory was the first to differentiate human germ cells in vitro from human pluripotent stem cells and subsequently went on to dissect the function of the DAZ genes and the autosomal homolog, DAZL, in both human and mouse germ cell development (the later also in in vivo studies). We demonstrated in these studies that the DAZ genes and autosomal homologs are required for the maintenance of pluripotency and subsequent progression of genetic and epigenetic programs in both human and mouse primordial germ cell differentiation in vitro and in vivo. 

Nicholas CR, Haston KM, Grewall AK, Longacre TA, and Reijo Pera RA (2009) Transplantation directs oocyte maturation from embryonic stem cells and provides a therapeutic strategy for female infertility.  Human Molecular Genetics 18:4376-89. PMCID: PMC2766296

Kee K, Angeles VT, Flores M, Nguyen HN, and Reijo Pera RA (2009) Human DAZL, DAZ and BOULE genes modulate primordial germ cell and haploid gamete formation. Nature 462, 222-5. PMCID: PMC3133736

Fang F, Angulo B, Xia N, Sukhwani M, Wang Z, Carey CC, Mazurie A, Cui J, Wilkinson R, Wiedenheft B, Surani AM, Orwig KE, Reijo Pera RA. A PAX5-OCT4-PRDM1 developmental switch specifies human primordial germ cells. Nature Cell Biology 20, 655-665. PMCID: PMC5970969.

F Fang, PJ Iaquinta, N Xia, L Liu, L Diao, Renee A. Reijo Pera (2022) Transcriptional control of human gametogenesis.  Human Reproduction Updates 28, 313-345. PMCID: PMC9071081

Comparative studies of human and mouse development

My laboratory published several firsts that have contributed to our basic understanding of human and mouse development, as well as to clinical assisted reproductive technologies.  We demonstrated that precise timing of development, via time-lapse imaging, predicts success and failure in pre- and post-implantation development.  Moreover, timing reflects the molecular health as determined by the sperm and egg. We have also defined fundamental basic properties of human development and compared them to mouse embryogenesis in order to probe development across species. Finally, we extended our studies to identify long non-coding RNAs that function to promote and protect early embryonic cell fate. 

Wong CC, Loewke KE, Bossert NL, Behr B, De Jonge CJ, Baer TM, and Reijo Pera RA. (2010) Non-invasive imaging of human embryos before embryonic genome activation predicts development to the blastocyst stage. Nature Biotechnology 28:1115-21. PMCID: N/A

Durruthy-Durruthy J, Sebastiano V, Wossidlo M, Cepeda D, Cui J, Grow EJ, Davila J, Mall M, Wong W, Wysocka J, Au KF & Reijo Pera RA (2015) A novel primate-specific noncoding RNA modulates human embryo and pluripotent stem cell fate. Nature Genetics 48, 44-52. PMCID: PMC4827613

F Fang, N Xia, B Angelo, J Carey, Z Cady, J Durruthy-Durruthy, T Bennett, V Sebastiano, RA Reijo Pera (2019) A distinct isoform of ZNF207 controls self-renewal and pluripotency of embryonic stem cells in conjunction with master transcription factors.  Nature Communications 9, 4384. PMCID: PMC6197280

J Arand, HR Chiang, D Martin, MP Snyder, J Sage, RA Reijo Pera, Mark Wossidlo Tet enzymes are essential for early embryogenesis and completion of embryonic genome activation. (2021) EMBO Reports, e53968. PMCID: PMC8811641

Collaborative translational studies of development and disease

We often collaborate on translational studies of development and disease that might be linked to developmental errors, environmental exposures and/or aging.  We have sought to understand the biology of human disease with a primary focus on developmental studies and genetic modeling of cell lineages (germ line and somatic) in basic, translational and clinical studies. 

Quarto N, Leonard B, Li S, Marchand M, Anderson E, Behr B, Francke U, Reijo Pera RA, Chiao E, and Longaker MT (2012) Skeletogenic phenotype of human Marfan embryonic stem cells faithfully phenocopied by patient-specific induced-pluripotent stem cells. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences 109, 215-20. PMCID: PMC3252902

Y Li, Green M, Wen Y, Wei Y, Wani P, Wang Z, Reijo Pera RA, Chen B. (2017) Efficacy and safety of immuno-magnetically sorted smooth muscle progenitor cells derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells for restoring urethral sphincter function. Stem Cells Transl Med.  6:1158-1167. PMCID: PMC5442833

Miousse IR, Currie R, Datta K, Ellinger-Ziegelbauer H, French JE, Harrill AH, Koturbash I, Lawton M, Mann D, Meehan RR, Moggs JG, O'Lone R, Rasoulpour RJ, Reijo Pera RA, Thompson K. (2015) Importance of investigating epigenetic alterations for industry and regulators: An appraisal of current efforts by the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute. Toxicology 335, 11-19. PMCID: N/A

Schuh SM, Kadie J, Rosen MP, Sternfeld B, Reijo Pera RA, Cedars MI. (2019) Links between age at menarche, antral follicle count, and body mass index in African American and European American women. Fertil Steril 111, 122-131.