Kate Loveland
Professor Loveland is Head of the Centre for Reproductive Health at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research and Head of Graduate Research in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash University. To understand why the rates of testicular cancer and male infertility are increasing, her laboratory investigates signaling pathways that underpin mammalian testis development and spermatogenesis using both human and mouse materials. She has expertise in activin/ TGF-β superfamily contributions to cellular development, and her research is defining downstream targets and the consequences of signaling pathway crosstalk. This is applied to delineating the outcomes for testis development and adult fertility of perturbed signaling in somatic and spermatogenic cells. The importance of these pathways for immune cell development and in steroid production have led her to examine how endocrine disruptor chemicals may intersect with other exposures, particularly in fetal life and infancy, to determine adult reproductive health. Her lab has also contributed to a new understanding of how regulated protein nucleocytoplasmic transport proteins influence development, with a current focus on TGF-β superfamily signaling regulation. An extensive international network of collaborations (Germany, Japan, Denmark, USA, Czech Republic) supports her team. She co-leads an International Research Training Group for PhD student training in the Molecular Pathogenesis of Male Reproduction, an exchange between Monash University and Justus-Liebig University in Germany supporting over 30 research students.
Abstracts this author is presenting: