Dr Sandy Richardson was awarded a 2019 Mater Research Strategic Grants for Outstanding Women.

Dr Richardson is researching how ‘jumping genes’ impact human fertility and embryonic development.

A jumping gene is a piece of DNA sequence that can copy itself from one place in our genome and insert itself somewhere else.

“So when that place happens to be inside of a gene that’s important for human health for example, you could have a new case of genetic disease,” Dr Richardson said.

“I’m trying to understand how often these jumping genes make mutations in germ cells and embryos and if those types of mutations are contributing factors in infertility or early pregnancy loss.

 “Then we would try to understand how their activity is regulated and if there are factors that predispose a person to have more jumping gene activity,” Dr Richardson said.