3/
Our model shows:
✅ High specificity for interstitial cells
✅ Activity in embryonic and adult reproductive tissues
✅ No recombination in Sertoli, granulosa, or germ cells
✅ Can also label Nr2f2+ lineages in other organs (lung, kidney)

🧵1/
🚨 New tool for reproductive biology!
We generated a Nr2f2-iCreERT2 mouse—an inducible Cre model that specifically targets interstitial cells in both male and female gonads.
Read more in our new @biolreprod paper:
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/biol...

One of my favourite IF images is participating for the #SSR 2nd Annual #ReproBioArt Image Contest!
Mind helping with a vote?

⬇️

woobox.com/2poyka/galle...

Thrilled to see my images featured in this IRP NIH blog post! irp.nih.gov/blog/post/20... ✨🔬🎨📸

While they look pretty, both were actually used to expand our understanding of testicular biology and male fertility. Check out our research here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

So honoured to receive a Future of Science Fund scholarship and thrilled to share my latest research at #KSMetabDev25. This has been one of the most enlighting meetings I attended. Thank you @keystonesymposia.bsky.social

Super proud of this milestone and grateful to our team at @NIEHS 🎉.
If you're into sex development, #DevBio #LeydigCells #DSD #TestisDevelopment or #singlecell biology, take a look! 7/7

Thus, Nr2f2 acts as a molecular gatekeeper of interstitial cell fate, with major implications for understanding DSDs and testicular development. 🧬 6/7

Surprise finding: these Nr2f2+ progenitors also give rise to the testicular tunica: the fibrous outer capsule. 😲
And in Nr2f2 knockouts, the tunica fails to form. A previously unrecognized link between interstitium and structural integrity! 5/7

Multiomic and ChIP-seq analyses revealed that NR2F2 maintains progenitor identity by suppressing differentiation into fetal Leydig cells. ☯️ 4/7

We identified a Nr2f2+ progenitor population that gives rise to fetal Leydig cells and other interstitial lineages.
Deleting Nr2f2 led to:
•Leydig cell loss
•Testis dysgenesis
•Cryptorchidism
•Hypospadias
Classic DSD features. ⚠️ 3/7

The interstitial compartment—home to steroidogenic Leydig cells—has been understudied compared to Sertoli and germ cells.
We used single-nucleus multiomics to deeply characterize interstitial populations in the embryonic testis. 🔬2/7

🚨Excited to share my first postdoc paper, now published in Nature Communications! We uncover a key regulator of testis development and its link to differences of sex development (DSD). 🧵
🔗 nature.com/articles/s4146…
1/7

The Easter Bunny hits different when you work in a chicken lab, looks like even our eggs are getting festive this week #DevBio #LabLife

My proudest contribution to the repro community? Using the only BioRender commission available in my student account to create the testis icon back in 2020. Seeing it pop up in papers and presentations always makes me smile! 👨‍🔬🔬

The 2025 season of MATEbolism Journal Club is now on! Over the last year, with @virginiasavy.bsky.social, we’ve explored how metabolism controls cell fate and epigenetics—while we metabolize cakes and snacks. Science fueled by sugar is back!! #Metabolism #Epigenetics #DevBio