Professor of Cell Biology
Blanche Capel, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology. Research focus on cell fate and patterning decisions that underlie development of the bipotential gonad into either testis or ovary using a variety of molecular and biochemical techniques; established the basic paradigm governing sex determination in vertebrates; has focused on the primary cell fate decision in somatic cells during sex determination, as well as the organogenesis process that encloses germ cells in a sex-specific environment and regulates their cell cycle and differentiation in the testis; recent work on the effect of chemotherapy agents on ovarian function has the potential to guide development of fertility-sparing treatments for women with cancer.