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Photo by Adam Stuckert.

In summer 2024, I received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) from the Hamel Undergraduate Research Center to pursue a project in Dr. MacManes’s genomics and physiology lab, which focuses on the cactus mouse. This fascinating desert-adapted species is capable of living its entire life without ever drinking water or urinating. Within the lab, both undergraduate and graduate students are pursuing a variety of different experiments studying this mouse. I decided to research uterine estrogen receptors of the cactus mouse, as no one in our lab had explored this before and understanding the reproductive function of the species can be enormously helpful in both the overall understanding of the species and the continued success in breeding the lab’s colony of mice. Alongside two other undergraduate students conducting experiments over the summer, we endeavored in unique projects using the common means of genetic analysis to answer our individual questions. However, this journey did not go as we expected. 

Almost immediately after summer began, we discovered that the company responsible for providing materials necessary for our proposed methods was unable to do so in a timely manner. Because of this immediate roadblock, I shifted my attention toward literature review and studying up on the murine female reproductive system. In preparation for my project, I had primarily researched the techniques needed for the experiment and had only begun to scratch the surface of female reproductive physiology. I knew that the genomic data I hoped to analyze would be complex and require a strong understanding of the system I was investigating. However, as I turned away from one obstacle, I encountered another.

While doing literature review, I discovered a shockingly sparse and inaccessible collection of sources. My questions about anatomy of murine uteruses or physiology of estrous cycles were almost impossible to answer. While I expected to find specific areas of current research interest, I instead found that almost every recent article concluded with a confession that the murine reproductive system is “not yet well understood.” 

I looked to my mentor, Dr. MacManes, for guidance. We began to search together, constantly simplifying our questions and trying to broaden our scope. We eventually began to ask questions about other species, specifically humans, to see if there was just a species-specific lack of information. To our surprise, the understanding of human female reproductive physiology was also lacking regarding our more specific questions.

This led me down a new rabbit hole of questions, but with an entirely different perspective. How could it be possible for some understandings of female reproductive anatomy and physiology to be so elusive to me, even as a biology student with sufficient background knowledge of cellular processes and anatomy? I thought back to a nursing course I had taken previously, Making Babies, and the discussions we often had about the absolute failures and abuses in our understanding and care for women. I couldn’t figure out how, in all the centuries humans have been alive and studied ourselves, we could still know relatively little about the female reproductive system compared to other systems in the body. More importantly, I wanted to know why. 

Although I did not get to carry out my actual experiment as planned, I did gain valuable experience in the world of biological sciences. In addition to my comprehensive literature review, I learned several lab skills such as dissection, RNA extraction, and tissue staining for histology. I got to care for the mice and helped to organize and breed the colony in preparation for further experiments. I became comfortable collaborating with my lab mates, constantly checking in and helping each other with our unique projects that utilized similar methodology. Best of all, in the last few weeks of the summer, our whole lab took a trip to Montreal for an international evolutionary biology research conference, where I was able to hear scientists from all over the world talk about their fascinating projects.

This SURF experience was unpredictable but introduced me to an enormous area of study that I now have a deep passion for. My interests have shifted from the lab-based, “hard-science” approach to an anthropological approach, studying the ways reproductive science and healthcare are practiced and discussed. I suspect that a contributor to the neglect of reproductive research is not solely due to lack of scientific effort or a societal forbidding of the discussion, rather a complex mix of both problems. I believe there is a phenomenon in which life-science based researchers exist in a bubble of cellular function and dissections, and sociologists exist in a bubble of inflammatory political debates and social psychology. While both areas are incredibly important to study, I believe bridging the gaps between them could lead to significant and revolutionary developments, in both biology and anthropology. I hope to continue integrating the perspectives of both fields in my own continuing research at UNH.