Francesca E. Duncan PhD

Dr. Duncan has spent her research career focusing on female reproductive health. She graduated from Haverford College with a BS in Biology and Biochemistry (2000) and earned her doctorate in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania (2006) under the mentorship of Dr. Carmen Williams. She then did her first postdoctoral fellowship (2006-2009) at the University of Pennsylvania with Dr. Richard Schultz followed by a five-year span (2009-2014) in Dr. Teresa Woodruff’s laboratory at Northwestern where she transitioned from a post-doctoral fellow to an Assistant Research Professor. She then established an independent research program as an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology (2014-2016) before being recruited back to Northwestern in her current position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Executive Director of the Center for Reproductive Science. Research in the Duncan laboratory uses mammalian model systems (mouse, bovine, and human) to test the overarching hypothesis that deterioration of gamete-intrinsic cellular pathways together with changes in the ovarian microenvironment contribute to the reproductive age-associated decline in egg quantity and quality.