Min Xu, PhD
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My name is Min Xu and I am a research assistant professor in the Oncofertility Consortium. I received my M.D. and Ph.D. in China, and more specifically, I was working in a clinical IVF lab for 5 years. During that time I helped many men bank their sperm for their future family plans, however, I felt quite guilty when I had to keep telling women “I am sorry that there is no way to preserve your eggs.”
“Why there is no option for women?”
“What can I do about this?”
These two questions were so dominant in my mind, and they eventually drove me to join Dr. Woodruff and Dr. Shea’s collaboration lab, where we are aiming to look at these questions. And more importantly, answer them.
As usual in these modern days, most of basic science starts on the animal models. By using the mouse as a model, I proved that immature follicles can be grown in the three-dimensional biomatrix system, alginate, to produce healthy eggs, and eventually result in life birth. I am now working on optimizing and translating this novel technique to human follicle in vitro development.