Editorial Contacts

• Editor-in-Chief - Tony Flint
• Associate Editor - Jim Cummins
• Associate Editor - Alison Douglas
• Associate Editor - Geraldine Hartshorne
• Associate Editor - Jeff Keelan
• Associate Editor - Michael Kubisch
• Associate Editor - Laura Parry
• Associate Editor - Anna Petrunkina
• Associate Editor - Darryl Russell
• Associate Editor - Qing-Yuan Sun
• Associate Editor - Ann Van Soom
• Publisher - Caroline Hadley
• Editorial Assistant

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Editor-in-Chief - Tony Flint

Professor Tony Flint studied Biochemistry at St Andrew´s University (at Queen´s College, Dundee, which was then part of St Andrew´s), graduating in 1966. His first paper, published with David Stansfield in the Journal of Endocrinology in 1967, arose from his undergraduate research project on the active transport of ascorbate into luteal cells. This started a career involving the application of biochemical techniques to female reproductive physiology.

Professor Flint took his PhD in 1969 at Bristol, where he studied luteal glucose metabolism. He then spent 3 years in London, Ontario with David Armstrong, studying cholesterol ester metabolism in the corpus luteum. Returning to the UK in 1972 he worked on the initiation of labour in ruminants, with Alec Turnbull and Anne Anderson, firstly in Cardiff and then in Oxford. This work led to the discovery that the decrease in placental progesterone secretion at term was due to its conversion into oestrogen in the placenta, as a result of the induction of placental enzymes by fetal cortisol.

Moving to the BBSRC Institute at Babraham in 1977 Tony showed (with Linda Sheldrick, who was later to become his wife) that oxytocin stimulated uterine PGF_2alpha production at luteolysis, and that this oxytocin was, unexpectedly, secreted by the corpus luteum itself. This led to the discovery (simultaneously with Mike Roberts in Florida) that interferon-tau is the maternal recognition of pregnancy signal in ruminants, and that it acts by down-regulating uterine oxytocin receptor expression.

In 1987 he was appointed to the Directorship of the Institute of Zoology in London, from where he moved to his present position as Professor of Animal Physiology at Nottingham University in 1993. He has published about 150 peer reviewed papers on a wide variety of species and has served on the editorial boards of a number of journals in reproductive biology.

Editor-in-Chief
Professor Tony Flint
Reproduction, Fertility and Development
School of Biosciences
University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington
Leicestershire LE12 5RD
UK
Telephone +44 1159 516300
Email anthony.flint@nottingham.ac.uk

Associate Editor - Jim Cummins

Dr Jim Cummins obtained a PhD in reproductive biology from the University of Liverpool in 1970, following an MSc in Mammalian Reproduction and Embryology at the University of North Wales (1966), and a BSc in Zoology from the University of London (1965). He currently teaches Anatomy, Human Biology and Reproductive Biotechnology at Murdoch University in Western Australia and has extensive experience in reproductive biology and assisted conception techniques. He sits on the editorial board of several international journals, including Reproduction Fertility and Development, Human Reproduction and Reproductive Biotechnology Online, and chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Reproductive Technology Council of Western Australia (the government body overseeing IVF clinics). He has been involved in professional editing for ten years and has worked on about 2500 papers, primarily for authors from non English-speaking backgrounds. He has published 115 peer-reviewed publications in fields ranging from sperm biology to mitochondrial function and evolution, and has contributed 19 chapters to books or symposia collections.

Associate Editor - Alison Douglas

Dr Alison Douglas is a Reader in the Centre for Integrative Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Edinburgh. Her research interests are in the control of neuroendocrine neurones and their important roles throughout reproduction, including in sexual behaviour, in establishment and maintenance of pregnancy, in optimising birth processes and in behaviour during lactation. The current focus of her research is twofold: (1) on control of oxytocin neurones during mating, birth and maternal behaviour, and (2) on stress and anxiety, including the effect of reproduction on a range of endocrine and neuroendocrine stress responses as well as vice versa, the effect of stress on successful reproduction.

Associate Editor - Geraldine Hartshorne

Professor Geraldine Hartshorne joined the University in 1995, working first in the Department of Biological Sciences, and moving to Warwick Medical School in 2006. She holds a joint position as Scientific Director of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. Specialising in reproductive medicine, her research aims to improve understanding of the scientific basis of fertility and infertility, with particular emphasis on oocyte and embryo development and function, including oocyte formation and female meiosis, oocyte growth and maturation, fertilisation and blastocyst formation, fertility preservation and cryostorage, apoptosis and viability markers. Her expertise spans research and clinical applications. She has taken a lead nationally in the continued professional development of clinical embryologists and is Chair of the Panel of Examiners at the Royal College of Pathologists. She has held several professional advisory roles, advising the EU, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the Health Professions Council and the Department of Health. Her editorial experience includes Editorial Board Membership of Reproduction and Human Fertility and she was previously an Associate Editor and Assistant Editor of Human Reproduction.

Associate Editor - Jeff Keelan

Professor Jeff Keelan is Principal Research Fellow and Laboratory Head at the University of Western Australia´s School of Women´s and Infants´ Health in Perth. Prior to taking up his present position in 2007, he spent over 25 years at the University of Auckland in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacology, and the Liggins Institute, initially as a research technician, then hospital scientific officer, postdoctoral research fellow and senior lecturer. He has a long standing interest in placental endocrinology, lipid mediators, cytokines and inflammation, in addition to more recent interests in placental drug transport and sphingolipid metabolism. He has been actively involved in many aspects of local and international reproductive biology/endocrinology societies, and also active as a reviewer for leading international journals and funding agencies. He has published almost 90 articles and reviews.

Associate Editor - Michael Kubisch

Dr H. Michael Kubisch is at the Tulane National Primate Research Center in Covington, Louisiana and is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Physiology in the School of Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans. Dr Kubisch´s research interests have focused primarily on understanding the factors that regulate embryonic development. One of the goals of his research has been to elucidate the role of proteins that enable bovine embryos to implant into the uterus and to examine whether such proteins could be useful as predictors for the outcome of embryo transfers. More recently he has investigated the effects of age on reproduction of female rhesus monkeys and to what extent female reproductive traits are inherited in this species. His interests also include the development of more efficient approaches to generating transgenic monkeys and of methods for the cryopreservation of rhesus sperm.

Associate Editor - Laura Parry

Dr Laura Parry is a Senior Lecturer in fetal physiology in the Department of Zoology at The University of Melbourne. Her research uses a comparative physiological approach to investigate fetal-maternal interactions within the uterus, especially during the initial stages of pregnancy and at term. She has a long-standing interest in the peptide hormones relaxin and oxytocin, their actions within the female reproductive tract and regulation of uterine oxytocin and relaxin receptors. She is currently investigating mechanisms involved in uterine artery vasodilation and vascular remodelling in the endometrium and decidua, which are associated with increasing blood flow to the feto-placental unit.

Associate Editor - Anna Petrunkina

Dr Anna Petrunkina is Head of Flow Cytometry at the University of Cambridge´s Institute for Medical Research and is a faculty member at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. She studied Physics at Sankt-Petersburg University, Biomedical Engineering at the Medical School of Hannover and completed both her PhD and later her habilitation at the School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. She is an Associate Reader in Reproductive Biology and Biomedical Engineering. Dr Petrunkina´s research interests have focused primarily on understanding the mechanisms that regulate sperm function. The main aims of her research have been to identify factors and pathways which facilitate sperm adaptation and response to their environment, in particular related to cell volume regulation, capacitation and sperm-oviduct interaction. In 2007, after 12 years of reproductive research, she took up her present position in Cambridge to direct the provision and development of scientific technology services with respect to flow cytometric applications. She retains an active research interest in andrology. Another important interest is the promoting of mathematical analysis in reproductive biology. She is active as a reviewer for leading international journals and has published nearly 50 papers, reviews and book chapters.

Associate Editor - Darryl Russell

Dr Darryl Russell is Research Fellow in Ovarian Cell Biology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Adelaide. His research focuses primarily on the cyclic remodelling of the ovary during folliculogenesis, atresia, ovulation and luteinisation. Through his studies of extracellular matrix remodelling and tissue morphogenesis, he also has research interests in the biological basis of the development and progression of cancers of the reproductive organs.

Associate Editor - Qing-Yuan Sun

Professor Qing-Yuan Sun is director of the State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He completed a PhD on animal embryology in 1994 and took a full professor position in 1998. His research interests include: (1) signal transduction, spindle organization, spindle assembly checkpoint, and chromosome separation during oocyte meiotic maturation and fertilization; (2) asssisted reproduction technology and animal cloning; and (3) epigenetics in early development. His editorial experience includes membership of the Reviews Committee of Biology of Reproduction, associate editor of Molecular Reproduction and Development, editor of Current Zoology, and editorial board member of many other journals such as Cell Cycle, Journal of Reproduction and Development, Asian Journal of Andrology, Progress in Natural Science. He is also active as a reviewer for more than 30 international journals and funding agencies. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed research articles and reviews, mostly related to mammalian oocytes.

Associate Editor - Ann Van Soom

Professor Ann Van Soom studied veterinary medicine at Ghent University, and then completed a PhD on embryo quality of in-vitro-produced bovine embryos in 1996. She was appointed as a full professor in the Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health at the University of Ghent, Belgium in 2008. The main focus of her research group is the unravelment of the genes and proteins involved in embryonic differentiation. In particular, they are trying to identify signaling molecules that are important paracrine mediators between the embryo and the maternal tract, and between embryos when cultured in vitro. As such they are aiming to identify molecules which are important for a normal embryonic development in several different mammalian species. Another important area of research is focused on the interaction of viruses and embryos, and the resemblance this interaction bears to the sperm-oocyte interaction.

Publisher

Caroline Hadley
Telephone +61 3 9662 7629
Email caroline.hadley@csiro.au

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Enquiries about editorial aspects of the Journal should be sent to:

Editorial Assistant
Reproduction, Fertility and Development
CSIRO PUBLISHING
PO Box 1139 (150 Oxford Street)
Collingwood, Vic. 3066
Australia
Telephone +61 3 9662 7616
Fax +61 3 9662 7611
Email publishing.rfd@csiro.au

Rights & Permissions

For all enquiries or requests regarding rights and permissions, please contact: publishing@csiro.au