My principal research interests are in comparative endocrinology and reproductive biology. I had practiced as an obstetrician-gynecologist before switching careers and earning a PhD in zoology. For my graduate and post-doctoral research, I studied the reproductive endocrinology and physiology of spotted hyenas, yellow-pine chipmunks, degus, and Siberian hamsters. This comparative approach, along with my clinical experience in human medicine, helped prepare me to serve as the director of the veterinary diagnostic endocrinology lab. Since coming to Cornell, I’ve focused my research on female reproductive aging, with an emphasis on the ovaries. I’ve studied reproductive/ovarian aging in Siberian hamsters, naked mole-rats, and mice that express a naked-mole rat transgene. For most of my research endeavors, I’ve generally followed Krogh’s Principle: “For a large number of problems, there will be some animal of choice, or a few such animals, in which it can most conveniently be studied.” (1929).

During my directorship of the diagnostic endocrinology lab, we were the first to use anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) as a blood test to distinguish between spayed and gonadally intact cats and dogs. And since then, AMH’s applications have expanded to testing for ovarian remnant syndrome and cryptorchidism. Our lab was also the first to offer leptin testing as part of the work up for equine metabolic syndrome. Ongoing research involves a longitudinal study on thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in Golden Retrievers with hypothyroidism to determine whether TSH was elevated at any point in the dog’s history for those dogs with a normal TSH concentration at the time of diagnosis. 

• B.S. - 1982 State University of New York, Albany - Biology
• M.D. - 1987 University of Rochester - Medicine
• Ph.D. - 2000 University of Washington - Zoology