Dr Penny Whiley is a member of the Testis Development and Male Germ Cell Biology Research group in the Centre for Reproductive Health.

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Penny Whiley is a member of the Testis Development and Male Germ Cell Biology Research group in the Centre for Reproductive Health.

Areas of interest

Female infertility Male infertility Testicular cancer

Research group

Testis Development and Male Germ Cell Biology

Biography

Dr Penny Whiley is a Postdoctoral Scientist working with Professor Kate Loveland in the Testis Development and Male Germ Cell Biology lab. She specialises in basic research in the field of male reproductive health, with her current research projects focussed on understanding how nuclear import factors, named ‘importins’, and the growth factor activin A support spermatogenesis throughout testis development.

Penny obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology at Portsmouth University, England. After moving to Australia, she worked as a Senior Research Assistant for several years before starting her PhD in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Kate Loveland, Associate Professor Robin Hobbs and Associate Professor Peter Stanton. In 2023, Dr Whiley was awarded a PhD from Monash University, for her thesis entitled ‘The roles of activin A and Ipo5 in spermatogonial stem cell biology’.

During her PhD candidature, Penny won the Faculty of Medicine 3-Minute Thesis competition (2021), for her presentation titled: Very ‘Importin’ Proteins make Very Important People. She also received awards for her presentations at international conferences; the DGA Lecture Prize in the experimental field from the German Andrology Society (2020) and the Anna Steinberger Top Trainee Merit Award from the American Society of Andrology (2022).

Publication highlights