Dr. Coonrod is investigating the role of stored mammalian maternal egg factors in reprogramming the embryonic genome. In particular, the Coonrod lab is interested in understanding how maternal transcripts are translated in the early embryo and then orchestrate nuclear reprogramming events shortly after fertilization. This work has a direct link to stem cell biology, given that the totipotent zygote gives rise to pluripotent stem cells and that donor oocytes will be utilized to reprogram patient's somatic cells to generate functional stem cells.
Yurttas P, Vitale AM, Fitzhenry RJ, Cohen-Gould L, Wu W, Gossen JA, Coonrod SA. Role for PADI6 and the cytoplasmic lattices in ribosomal storage in oocytes and translational control in the early mouse embryo.
Development. 2008 Aug;135(15):2627-36. Epub 2008 Jul 3.
Vitale,A.M., Calvert, M,E., Mallavarapu, M., Yurttas, P., Perlin , J, Herr, J., Coonrod, S.A. (2007) Proteomic profiling of murine oocyte maturation. Mol Reprod Dev. 74(5):608-16.
Liu M., Oh A., Calarco P., Yamada M., Coonrod, S.A., Talbot, P. (2005) Peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) is a mouse cortical granule protein that plays a role in preimplantation embryonic development. Reprod. Biol. Endocrinol. 3(1):42.