Rate My Professor Tessa Lord

Dr. Tessa Lord is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia, specializing as a reproductive biologist in spermatogenesis and spermatogonial stem cell biology. She established her independent research program at the University of Newcastle in 2019 after completing postdoctoral training at Washington State University Center for Reproductive Biology (2016-2018) under Professor Jon Oatley. Lord earned her PhD in 2015 from the University of Newcastle, where her thesis examined the role of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress in post-ovulatory oocyte aging and apoptosis under Laureate Professor John Aitken. She also holds a Bachelor of Biotechnology (Honours, Class I) from the University of Newcastle. Her research investigates hypoxia-regulated signaling pathways essential for spermatogonial stem cell maintenance, self-renewal, and differentiation. This work addresses applications in fertility preservation for pre-pubertal boys post-chemotherapy, pathological hypoxia in conditions such as varicocele and sleep apnoea contributing to male infertility, and in vitro spermatogonial stem cell culture systems for wildlife conservation including koalas and echidnas.

Since 2019, Lord has attracted over $4 million in competitive research funding, serving as Chief Investigator A on an NHMRC Project Grant (GNT1181024, 2020) exploring hypoxia-inducible factors in spermatogonial stem cell regeneration and recipient of an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellowship (DE220100032, 2022) on hypoxia signaling and metabolism in spermatogonial stem cell technologies. Her publications appear in high-impact journals, including a first-author invited perspectives article 'Testicular-borne factors affect sperm fertility' in Science (2020), corresponding author review 'Metabolic Changes Accompanying Spermatogonial Stem Cell Differentiation' in Developmental Cell (2020), and senior-author research article on the hypoxia-inducible factor EPAS1 in iScience (2023). With more than 1800 citations and an h-index of 19, her contributions have notable influence. Awards include the Society for the Study of Reproduction Rising Star in Reproductive Biology (2024), Society for Reproductive Biology Male Contraceptive Initiative abstract awards (2022 and 2024), and Lalor Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2017-2018). As Deputy Director of the Centre for Reproductive Science, she has delivered keynotes at the Germinal Stem Cell Biology Gordon Research Seminar (2023) and Fertility 2024 conference.