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Monica M Laronda: Faculty Experts

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Monica M Laronda

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
Gesualdo Family Research Scholar
Director, Gonadal Tissue Processing, Fertility & Hormone Preservation & Restoration Program, Dept. of Endocrinology, Pediatric Surgery, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

About

Areas of Focus

  • Gonad biology
  • Oogenesis
  • Bioengineering
  • Spermatogenesis
  • Fertility preservation
  • Sex as a biological variable
  • Reproductive hormones

Work/Research

  • Investigating fertility and hormone preservation and restoration
  • Understanding the ovarian microenvironment on ovarian follicle growth to engineer a bioprosthetic ovary using 3D printing and unique biomaterials
  • Investigating impact of physical properties (such as rigidity) on oocyte activation and maturation of eggs
  • Understanding impact of form on function of gonadal hormone-producing cells to inform a sex hormone transplant
  • Developing gonadal hormone-producing cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells
  • Developing a testis tubule assembloid to support in vitro spermatogenesis
  • Investigating pathways involved in human gonad development through variants found in patients with differences in sex development

Career

Dr. Laronda is Director of Research for the Fertility & Hormone Preservation & Restoration or Oncofertility Program at Lurie Children's and holds the FDA and IDPH registration to process and cryopreserve gonadal tissue for future autologous transplantation. From 2015 - 2024, Dr. Laronda has participated in over 50 international conferences as an invited Keynote or symposium speaker and has been recognized by the bioengineering and regenerative medicine fields, reproductive biologists and physicians, and endocrinologists from the US, Germany, Finland, France, Mexico and South Africa.

She received an Early Investigators Award from the Endocrine Society in 2019 and was recognized as a Rising Star in Reproductive Biology by the Society for the Study of Reproduction in 2021. Dr. Laronda's most notable publication with more than 450 citations to date was published in Nature Communications in 2017 titled, "Bioprosthetic ovary with 3D printed microporous architecture restores hormone production and fertility in sterilized mice" (doi:10.1038/ncomms15261). Dr. Laronda has also held four NIH awards and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund award.