Rate My Professor Melanie Laird

Dr Melanie Laird is a Research Fellow in the Department of Anatomy within the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Otago. She is an evolutionary and comparative biologist holding a Doctor of Philosophy, with a specific research interest in marsupial reproduction. Her work integrates genetics, epigenetics, reproduction, development, and evolutionary biology to address how and why biological patterns arise. Currently, she investigates the successful development of immature gametes and the mechanisms by which adult prostates turn on and off during seasonal breeding in marsupials. These studies elucidate the genetic and epigenetic processes that have shaped mammalian reproduction.

Dr Laird has published extensively on marsupial reproductive biology. Key publications include 'Imprinted X chromosome inactivation in marsupials: The paternal X arrives at the egg with a silent DNA methylation profile' (PNAS, 2024), 'The admixed brushtail possum genome reveals invasion history in New Zealand and novel imprinted genes' (Nature Communications, 2023), 'Primordial germ cell expression of SSEA1 and DDX4 (VASA) in female Trichosurus vulpecula' (Reproduction, Fertility & Development, 2021), and 'Uterine epithelial remodelling during pregnancy in the marsupial Monodelphis domestica' (2020). Highly cited works encompass 'Transcriptomic changes in the pre-implantation uterus highlight histotrophic nutrition of the developing marsupial embryo' (2018, 38 citations), 'Facultative oviparity in a viviparous skink (Saiphos equalis)' (2019, 26 citations), 'Uterine epithelial cell changes during pregnancy in a marsupial (Sminthopsis crassicaudata)' (2014, 25 citations), 'Uterine morphology during diapause and early pregnancy in the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii)' (2016), and 'Uterine focal adhesion dynamics during pregnancy in a marsupial (Sminthopsis crassicaudata)' (2017). In 2022, she was awarded a Marsden Fund Fast-Start grant of $360,000 for her project on seasonal prostate plasticity as a model for cell proliferation regulation. She is a member of the Anatomy Emerging Researchers Group and Anatomy Research Committee.