Research at Northwestern University * Center for Reproductive Science (CRS)

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Reproductive Science at Northwestern

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Marcia L. Storch Scholarship Fund for Undergrad Women

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Reproductive Science at Northwestern University

Consistent with its status as a world-class research university, Northwestern has long had major research, education and clinical programs in the reproductive sciences. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital is renowned for its clinical programs in obstetrics, gynecologic oncology and women's health. The Northwestern-affiliated Evanston Hospital also has excellent clinical programs, particularly in the area of maternal-fetal medicine. On both the Evanston and Chicago campuses, researchers in several basic science and clinical departments have outstanding research programs in areas including the neuroendocrinology of reproduction, gonadal and placental function, and reproductive hormone action.

As early at 1974, research in reproduction at Northwestern was organized into a Program for Reproductive Research, lead by Professor Neena Schwartz. This program served to catalyze the acquisition of federally funded research grants, the recruitment of new faculty, and the establishment of training programs in the reproductive sciences. In recognition of these accomplishments and the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of reproductive science, the

Northwestern University Center for Reproductive Science (CRS) was formed in 1987, with Professor Schwartz as the Director. Professor Kelly Mayo became CRS Director in 2003. The Center has as its mission to enhance and coordinate research in the reproductive sciences at Northwestern University, to promote the application of this research toward human welfare, and to optimize the training of future research, teaching and clinical scientists in the reproductive sciences.

The Center for Reproductive Science

The Center for Reproductive Science includes 42 faculty in 13 basic science and clinical departments at the Evanston campus, Evanston hospital and the medical school in Chicago. Current research focus areas in CRS are circadian rhythms; clinical fertility and infertility; growth and development; gonadal development and function; neural control of sexual function; neuroendocrinology; ovarian function; reproduction and society; prostate biology; and testis function. More detailed information on our faculty can be found within this website.

A Director and an Executive Committee govern CRS, and like other Northwestern centers it reports to and is partially supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research. The Center administers several large research grants, including an NIH-sponsored training program in reproductive biology (now in its 26th year), an NIH-sponsored program project grant in reproductive science (now in its 18^th year), and a new NIH-sponsored cooperative center in reproductive research (which began last year). These are all multi-investigator grants, and a hallmark of the Center is its facilitation of multidisciplinary research.

The Center sponsors an annual Minisymposium in Reproductive Science (the 25^thsymposium was held in 2004!), which provides a forum for presentation of research by student and postdoctoral trainees at Northwestern and from throughout the midwest. In addition to postdoctoral, medical fellow and graduate students, many undergraduate students perform research in CRS laboratories, and CRS sponsors two annual awards that promote research and national meeting attendance by Northwestern undergraduate students.

CRS has a small but important community outreach function, and many CRS faculty have participated in the teaching of alumnae continuing education and lifetime learning courses. Center faculty play a prominent role in teaching at the national level in major summer courses such as "Frontiers in Reproduction" (at the Marine Biological Laboratories). The Center's quarterly newsletter "Reproduction Matters" disseminates information about events and research advances in the reproductive sciences to the Northwestern community.

Over the past 5 years, CRS faculty have obtained more than $80 million in external grant funding from governmental agencies and private foundations. CRS faculty are highly visible and recognized nationally, and the faculty includes several past or current presidents of major national societies such as the Society for the Study of Reproduction and the Endocrine Society. CRS faculty also play many important leadership roles at Northwestern University.

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