Carolina Jorgez
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Genetics
Cryptorchidism, a condition in which one or both testicles fail to descend into the scrotum before birth, affects 1–3% of full-term baby boys. It is the most common urological birth defect in males.
- Fields
Genetics
Physiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
cryptorchidism
undescended testis
testicular descent
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2031
What they work on
- Define why male mice lacking Wnt4 in the gubernaculum, the tissue that guides testis descent, are infertile, separating the effects of testis position, the genetic defect and hormone imbalance in both testes.
- Generate a conditional knockout mouse to test whether Wnt4 has a separate role in Leydig cells, the testosterone-producing cells of the testis.
- Test how Wnt4 suppresses left-right asymmetric gene expression by building spatial transcriptomic and proteomic maps of the gubernaculum and epididymis in Wnt4-deficient mice, and test the signaling pathway in tissue-derived cell models.
- Determine whether Wnt4 is required for normal epididymis development, given the severely impaired sperm motility in both testes of Wnt4-deficient mice.
More about the research
In 80% of cases only one side is affected. Even after early corrective surgery, men keep a higher risk of infertility and testicular cancer. Nearly half of those with one undescended testis have problems making sperm, even though the other testis descended normally. The causes are largely unknown, which suggests the problem involves more than where the testis ends up.
Why it matters
Cryptorchidism costs over $1 billion a year in U.S. healthcare and leaves many men at risk of infertility, hormone problems and testicular cancer even after surgery. Learning how Wnt4 signaling controls testis descent and function could reveal what predisposes boys to undescended testes. It could also inform targeted therapies that improve on current surgical treatment.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kassim Traore
Duquesne University, PA·Pharmacology
Test how MEHP, the active breakdown product of the plasticizer DEHP, affects the development of testosterone-producing Leydig cells from stem Leydig cells grown in vitro.
Kellee Siegfried
University of Massachusetts-Boston, MA·Biology
Identify the testis RNAs bound directly by Adad1, an RNA binding protein needed to maintain zebrafish sperm stem cells. Compare these RNAs in adad1 mutant and normal testes to see whether Adad1 stabilizes or destabilizes them.
Haiqi Chen
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Genetics
Map ligand–receptor interactions, where signaling molecules bind receptors on neighboring cells, between human spermatogonial stem cells and their niche using spatial transcriptomics on intact testis tissue sections.
The school
Baylor College of Medicine: 38 labs on PI Pages, $881M a year on research, 115 research doctorates a year.
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