Amander Clark, Ph.D. 

Amander Clark, Ph.D., is a stem cell scientist, geneticist and developmental biologist who studies reproductive cells of the ovaries and testes. Her research program combines stem cell biology, genetics and genomics to identify the genes and pathways that regulate human fertility and promote reproductive health. Clark hopes her research will create new options for people who face an infertility diagnosis and inform the development of novel contraceptive methods. 

The Clark lab uses pluripotent stem cells to study the molecular and genetic events that regulate the production of ovarian follicular cells and germ cells, which create eggs or sperm. Clark and her team strive to characterize the key stages of healthy germ cell and ovarian follicle development to discover the genes, pathways and environmental factors that can disrupt this process, ultimately causing reproductive aging and infertility. According to the World Health Organization, infertility affects an estimated 186 million individuals worldwide and is common among cancer survivors whose eggs or sperm have been damaged by chemotherapy and radiation treatment and for women of advanced reproductive age experiencing ovarian failure.

In 2020, Clark and collaborators from Northwestern University, Rutgers University and MIT were awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the multi-disciplinary Ovarian Contraceptive Discovery Initiative. Her lab’s goal is to expand methods for reproductive choice by creating new approaches for contraceptive discovery screening through the use of stem cell differentiation. Contraceptive use has lifted millions of women and girls out of poverty, increased retention in school and ultimately enabled increased workforce participation. Developing new forms of accessible and low-cost contraceptives is essential to ensure choice, and that babies are born healthy and wanted.

Clark earned a doctorate degree in cell and developmental biology from the University of Melbourne and completed post-doctoral fellowships at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco.