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| Name |
Jaffe, Laurinda A. |
| Location
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University of Connecticut Health Center |
| Primary Field
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Physiology and Pharmacology |
| Secondary Field
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Cellular and Developmental Biology |
 Election Citation
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Laurinda A. Jaffe studies the physiological mechanisms that control oocyte development and fertilization.
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Research Interests
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Research in Laurinda Jaffe's lab concerns the physiological mechanisms that control oocyte development and fertilization. She discovered that after fertilization of many species, the egg's membrane depolarizes, which renders it refractory to fusion with additional sperm. In addition to investigating the molecular mechanisms that account for the voltage-dependence of sperm-egg fusion, her lab investigates how meiotic arrest and resumption are regulated in mammalian oocytes. Their work showed that the oocyte's meiotic arrest is regulated by cyclic AMP that is generated by a constitutively active G-protein-coupled receptor in the oocyte, and that the oocyte's cyclic AMP levels are regulated by a phosphodiesterase that is controlled by a dynamic flow of cyclic GMP between the oocyte and the surrounding (somatic) granulosa cells. They also discovered that luteinizing hormone releases oocytes from meiotic arrest by regulating guanylyl cyclase and phosphodiesterase activity in the granulosa cells, depleting the cyclic GMP in these cells and, in consequence, in the oocyte to which they are connected.
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