Lab News

December 2025

Our latest article about the effects of GnRH-II on porcine sperm function was published in General and Comparative Endocrinology!

November 2024

The Desaulniers lab co-authored a poster presentation entitled "Female offspring ovarian chemical metabolism protein abundance is altered by in utero atrazine exposure" with researchers at Iowa State University. The poster was presented at the Gilbert S. Greenwald Symposium on Reproduction in Kansas City, MO.

October 2024

Dr. Desaulniers visited Rutgers University in New Jersey to give a talk about current research in the lab!
Dr. Desaulniers gave a talk at the UNL Complex Biosystems Seminar Series entitled "Rescuing Male Fertility in the Biotechnology Era."

September 2024

Abbey Diaz joined the lab as a First Year Research Experience (FYRE) student!
Danny Ahern's first, first-author manuscript ("Development of KISS1 knockout pigs is characterized by hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, normal growth, and reduced skatole") was accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal, Biology of Reproduction! Dr. Desaulniers is a co-author on this publication.

August 2024

Our latest article characterizing the phenotype of GnRHR-II KD gilts was published in a special issue of Animals (Endocrinology of the Female Reproductive System)!

July 2024

The Desaulniers lab traveled to Dublin, Ireland for the 57th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction! Brooke presented a poster about the effects of in utero growth restriction on the porcine testis. The Desaulniers lab also co-authored 4 other abstracts with other groups!

June 2024

Brooke McAnally (PhD student) was awarded a Larrick Graduate Student Travel Grant!
Dr. Desaulniers, Danny Ahern (research technician), Dani Schreiber (Second year vet student), and Brooke McAnanlly (PhD student) traveled to Wisconsin to present data at the 2024 Swine in Biomedical Research Conference!
Dr. Desaulniers gave an talk at the University of Missouri-Columbia for the Interdisciplinary Reproduction Health Group (IRHG). The title of her talk was "Developmental Programming of Porcine Testis Biology: Implications for Swine Production and Human Health."

May 2024

Brooke McAnally (PhD student) and Dr. Desaulniers traveled to Fort Collins for the Rocky Mountain Reproductive Sciences Symposium. Brooke presented a talk about the effects of in utero growth restriction on the porcine testis!
Congrats to Nicole Nordell for passing her M.S. Thesis Defense!
Congrats to Lexy Polivanov for passing their M.A.S Defense!

April 2024

Dr. Desaulniers gave a talk for the SVMBS seminar series entitled "Elucidating porcine testis biology: Benefits for Swine Production and Human Health."
Congrats to Grace Schlueter for receiving a 2024-2025 UCARE grant!
Danny Ahern and Jackie Shelton presented posters at the 15th Annual Spring Retreat of the NPOD!
Congrats to Jackie Shelton (M.S. student) for winning a travel award to the 2024 Swine in Biomedical Research Conference for her abstract about the effects of maternal atrazine consumption on piglet health!
Congrats to Brooke McAnally (PhD student) for winning a travel award to the 2024 Swine in Biomedical Research Conference for her project about the testicular proteome of in utero growth restricted (IUGR) pigs.

March 2024

Maddie Wegner, Morgan Hixson, and Grace Schlueter all presented posters at the UNL Undergraduate Research Fair!
Maddie Wegner completed her Honor's Thesis and SREE project entitled "Effects of Maternal Milk Consumption on Reproductive Development of Neonatal Boars!"
Dr. Desaulniers gave an invited talk at the UNL Biological Systems Engineering seminar series entitled "Elucidating Swine Testis Biology: Benefits for Agriculture and Human Health!"

February 2024

Dr. Desaulniers visited Purdue University and gave an invited talk entitled "In utero heat stress programs a lifetime of reproductive failure in the boar."

January 2024

Brooke McAnally joined the lab as a PhD student!
Danny Ahern joined the lab as a Research Technician III!
Our newest journal article reviewing the role of GnRH-II and its receptor in human reproductive cancer was published!

November 2023

Dr. Desaulniers presented an invited seminar entitled "Physiological effects of atrazine on swine: implications for agriculture and human health" at the UNMC Midwest Public Health Innovation and Research Expo (PHIRE) in Omaha, NE.
Jackie, Lexy, and Nicole presented posters at the 20th Annual Greenwald Symposium on Reproduction!
Jackie won an award for best poster at the 20th Annual Greenwald Symposium on Reproduction!! Way to go, Jackie!!

September 2023

Dr. Desaulniers presented an invited seminar entitled "Programming of testis development via milk extracellular vesicles" at the Veteran Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System Seminar Series.
Dr. Desaulniers presented an invited talk at the University of Wyoming about lactocrine programming of the boar testis!

August 2023

Maddie Wegner (UCARE student) was awarded a 2023 U.S. Pork Center of Excellence Swine Research and Education Experience (SREE) grant ($5,000) entitled "Nursing programs future fertility in breeding boars." Congrats Maddie!
Freshman Grace Schlueter (Animal Science major) and Morgan Hixson (Biology Major) joined the lab as First Year Research Experience (FYRE) students!

July 2023

Dr. Desaulniers and Nicole Nordell (M.S. student) traveled to the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in Ottawa (Canada) to present research on the effects of in utero heat stress and lactocrine programming on the neonatal boar testis!

June 2023

The Desaulniers lab was awarded a Project Leader grant from the Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases (NPOD) through Dietary Molecules, which is a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) supported by the NIH!
Nicole Nordell (M.S. student) was awarded a $5,000 Life Sciences Fellowship from the Agricultural Research Division! Big congrats Nicole!!!!

May 2023

Congrats to Nicole! She won 1st place at the SVMBS Graduate Student Oral Presentation Competition!
Dr. Desaulniers presented an invited seminar entitled "Enhancing boar fertility in the face of climate change through the mitigation of in utero heat stress" at the Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC).
Nicole presented a talk at the 2023 Rocky Mountain Reproductive Sciences Symposium in Fort Collins, CO!

April 2023

Big congrats to Nicole Nordell for winning an NPOD poster award at the 2023 Spring Retreat!
Maddie Wegner was awarded a 2023-2024 UCARE grant! Congrats Maddie!
Dr. Desaulniers received a Courtesy Assistant Professor appointment in the UNL Department of Animal Science!

March 2023

Steven Faltas and Carlene Nguyen both presented posters at the UNL Undergraduate Research Fair!
The new USDA-NIFA grant was featured in a news article by Nebraska Today!
Dr. Desaulniers presented a talk at the Midwest Animal Science meeting in Madison, WI. The talk was entitled "In utero exposure to maternal heat stress impairs Leydig cell development and function in the boar."
The new USDA-NIFA project was featured on an IANR news interview with KRVN and IANR Vice Chancellor Dr. Mike Boehm !

February 2023

The Desaulniers lab was awarded a USDA-NIFA-AFRI Grant! The project is entitled "Enhancing boar fertility in the face of climate change through the mitigation of in utero heat stress." This project is a collaboration between UNL (Drs. Desaulniers and White), Purdue University (Dr. Brito), and USDA-ARS (Drs. Johnson and Lents).
Nicole Nordell was awarded a Larrick Graduate Student Travel Grant!

January 2023

Lexy Polivanov joined the lab as an M.S. student!
Jackie Shelton joined the lab as a Research Technician III!

December 2022

Our newest journal article reviewing the role of GnRH-II and its receptor in the pig was published!

November 2022

Dr. Desaulniers participated in the 2022 UNL faculty slam which was highlighted by Nebraska Today

October 2022

Dr. Desaulniers spoke about the positive impact of her undergraduate research experience at the 2022 Swine Education & Outreach Professionals Conference (Des Moines, IA) hosted by the National Pork Board.
Dr. Desaulniers and Nicole Nordell (M.S. student) traveled to the 19th Annual Gilbert S. Greenwald Symposium on Reproductive and Developmental Sciences in Kansas City, KS where Nicole presented a poster entitled "In utero heat stress impairs Leydig cell development and function in a porcine model."
Dr. Desaulniers was selected to join the NU 2 NIH Faculty Development Program sponsored by ORED!

September 2022

Dr. Desaulniers presented an invited seminar entitled "Developmental programming of testis dysfunction by in utero heat stress" at the Veteran Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System Seminar Series.

August 2022

The Desaulniers Lab received an ARD/USDA Hatch Multistate Enhanced Grant to study the effects of prenatal heat stress on testicular function of neonatal boars!

July 2022

Dr. Desaulniers received a NU Collaboration Initiative Grant with Drs. Sillman, Bartelt-Hunt, Zahid, and Rogan to study the effects of prenatal atrazine exposure on the health and fertility of pigs!
Dr. Desaulniers and Nicole Nordell (M.S. student) traveled to the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction to present research on the effects of early weaning on male fertility.
Dr. Desaulniers was admitted into the 2022-2024 IDeA Early Career Investigator Program funded by the NIH!

May and June 2022

Animal trials are underway to examine the effects of milk exosomes on testis development and function!

April 2022

Congrats to Nicole who won a UNL Graduate Travel Awards Program (GTAP) grant to help fund her upcoming trip to the annual SSR meeting to present her research!
Steven and Carlene, undergrads in the lab, presented their research (effects of corn-cob bedding on testis composition) at the UNL Undergraduate Research Fair!

March 2022

Dr. Desaulniers was featured in a UNL IANR Faculty Spotlight: https://ianrnews.unl.edu/faculty-spotlight-amy-desaulniers! Dr. Desaulniers also presented a talk about the effects of early weaning on testis development at Midwest ASAS.
Congrats to undergrads in the lab, Carlene and Steven, who both received UCARE funding for the 2022-23 academic year!

February 2022

The Desaulniers lab was awarded a 2022 Seed Grant from the Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases (NPOD) through Dietary Molecules, which is a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) supported by the NIH!
Steven Faltas (FYRE student in the Desaulniers Lab) was awarded an Undergraduate Experiential Learning Project Grant from the UNL Center for Transformative Teaching. The funding will support Steven's research project examining testicular function in males exposed to environmental phytoestrogens. Way to go, Steven!!!

January 2022

Welcome to Nicole Nordell, the first M.S. student in the Desaulniers lab!

December 2021

This month was busy for the Desaulniers lab! Morgan and Dr. Desaulniers presented three abstracts at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction! Dr. Desaulniers delivered an oral presentation entitled "The testicular transcriptome of GnRHR-II knockdown boars."

November 2021

The Desaulniers lab was awarded a 2022 Research Council Interdisciplinary Grant from ORED!

October 2021

Dr. Desaulniers was selected to be a 2021 - 2022 Research Development Faculty Fellow by the UNL Office for Research and Economic Development !
Morgan presented her work at the Gilbert S. Greenwald Symposium on Reproduction.

September 2021

Morgan was awarded 3rd place for her 2021 McNair paper entitled: Effects of Corn-Cob Bedding on Murine Testis Development and Function. Way to go, Morgan!

September 2021

Morgan presented her research at the UCM McNair Scholars Symposium (Warrensburg, MO) and the 25th Annual MKN McNair Heartland Research Conference (Kansas City, MO)!

August 2021

FYRE students Carlene and Steven, both Biology majors, joined the lab!

June and July 2021

Lab set-up is underway!

Summer 2021

The Lab has moved to the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln! Go Big Red!

April 2021

Dr. Desaulniers presented at both the Rocky Mountain Reproductive Sciences Symposium and Experimental Biology.

Fall 2020

Amber Petty presented a flash talk on steroidogenesis in neonatal pigs at the 2020 Greenwald Symposium.

Fall 2020

Amber Petty presented her work at the 2020 Heartland McNair Research Symposium.

Spring 2020

Congrats to Megan Ebrecht, former McNair Scholar, who won the prestigious UCM Who's Who award!

Spring 2020

Amber Petty, 2020 McNair Scholar, was awarded a UCM Undergraduate Scholars Grant for her project isolating ZsGreen1-labeled exosomes from porcine seminal plasma.

October 2019

Megan Ebrecht, McNair Scholar, was awarded a Trainee Travel Grant to present her research at the 2019 Gilbert S. Greenwald Symposium on Reproduction. Way to go, Megan!

January 2019

McNair Scholar Megan Ebrecht was awarded a UCM Undergraduate Scholars Grant for her project on the effects of GnRH-II in semen extender. Congrats Megan!

October 2018

Undergraduate student Rickie Dereks was awarded a Tri-Beta Undergraduate Research Grant for her research on seminal plasma-derived exosomes. Wahoo!

October 2018

Undergraduate student Rickie Dereks was awarded a UCM Undergraduate Scholars Grant for her project on seminal plasma-derived exosomes. Congrats Rickie!

August 2018

The Desaulniers laboratory is established at the University of Central Missouri!