Jaramillo-Lambert, who is assistant professor of biological sciences,
has been awarded a $2 million, five-year research grant, which began
July 15, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute
of General Medical Sciences. The funding comes from the Maximizing
Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program, which specifically
supports early-career research “among the nation’s highly talented and
promising investigators,” MIRA said.
“The formation of sperm and eggs with the ‘wrong’ number of
chromosomes is a key contributing factor to infertility, miscarriages
and birth defects in humans,” Jaramillo-Lambert wrote in her grant
application. Her research into chromosome structure and separation in
sperm and eggs, she said, will improve scientists’ understanding of how
disruptions in these processes contribute to male and female infertility
and birth defects and potentially lead to effective treatments.
Her research uses C. elegans, a transparent roundworm, as a
model to study meiosis and chromosome structure. Most meiosis research
in worms has focused on the formation of egg cells, she said, but her
team concentrates on sperm cells, in which the chromosomes are much
smaller but which contribute proteins that are important for various
aspects of early development.
Some chromosome disorders, including cases in which the number is
more or less than 46, cause such conditions as Down syndrome. But many
others result in infertility or miscarriage, Jaramillo-Lambert said, and
further research could lead to better diagnoses.
“In about 20% of cases of sterility, the underlying cause is
unknown,” she said. “The hope is that this research can help us
understand those cases.”
Jaramillo-Lambert joined the faculty in UD’s Department of Biological Sciences
in 2017. She earned her doctorate at the University of California,
Davis and did postdoctoral research at George Washington University
Medical Center and the NIH National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive
and Kidney Diseases.
Article by Ann Manser; photos by Kathy F. Atkinson
Published Oct. 12, 2021