My approach is to investigate the role and mechanism of action of reproductive hormones and factors on inducing a cellular response at the level of the pituitary, gonad and embryo.

Experimental tools and methods that are employed in my laboratory include: radioimmunoassays, ELISA, radioreceptor assays, bioassays, cell cultures, tissue cultures, isolation and purification techniques including HPLC technology, SDS gel electrophoresis, Western and Northern blots, and immunocytochemistry.

Below are some of the major contributions to science provided by my research program and graduate students:

• Identifying and characterizing the effects of anti-hCG antibody production on fertility in breeding mares.
• Identifying and characterizing LH receptors on the corpus luteum in mares.
• Developing a RIA for equine prolactin and an ELISA field test for equine chorionic gonadotropin.
• Identifying and characterizing a monoclonal antibody (518B7) that recognizes LH in a number of mammalian species, i.e. from the rat to the elephant, and making that antibody available to reproductive biologist around the world.
• Demonstrating by immunocytochemistry that the aromatase enzyme in the adult stallion is localized in the Leydig cell and not the Sertoli cell .
• Developing an inhibin RIA for mares and stallions.
• Demonstrating that estrogens and not endrogens have a direct feedback effect (positive) on GnRH-induced LH release at the level of the pituitary in the stallion.
• Demonstrating that LH and not FSH plays a major role in stimulating the production of both estrogen and testosterone from cultured Leydig cells.
• Demonstrating that idiopathic subfertile/infertile stallions have a testicular dysfunction that may start with the Sertoli cell.

Our long term goals are to elucidate the basis of endocrine dysfunction associated with reproductive failure in the mare and stallion.