Marin Science Seminar Presentation: “Before Egg and Sperm: Stem Cells of the Germline" Although we do not need our gametes for 20 or 30 years, they are established during early development in the womb by stem cell precursors.  My research in mouse embryos asks how these cells acquire and maintain their identity, migrate to the forming ovaries or testes, and avoid becoming cancerous on their way to differentiating as egg or sperm. (April 22, 2009)

Diana Laird, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Institute for Regeneration Medicine and the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at UCSF. She was raised in Portland, Oregon and completed her undergraduate in physics at Harvard College. She received a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and carried out postdoctoral training at Sloan Kettering Institute in New York before returning to the west coast in 2008.