Lay summary
I am the first person in my immediate family to undertake a tertiary education and have recently completed a Masters Research thesis. My research interest is in the field of reproductive biology and envisage a future career examining fertility in New Zealand women. For my PhD research, I will utilise a bovine model to investigate the importance of mimicking the physiological microenvironment of ovarian follicles when maturing eggs (oocytes) in vitro. To achieve this study, I will prepare physiologically-relevant in vitro maturation (IVM) media in which a number of key constituents will differ in concentrations. The impact of these media on oocyte maturation and resultant embryo quality following in vitro fertilisation will be tested by examining alterations in critical molecular and metabolic pathways. This research will further our understanding of factors influencing oocyte maturation and may lead to IVM media refinement to improve the efficiency of human artificial reproductive technologies.