Renee Reijo Pera is a scientist who studies stem cells and serves as the President of the McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls, MT. She previously worked as Vice President of Research and Economic Development for more than 8 years at California Polytechnic State University and Montana State University. Her research focuses on human development and disease, including how certain types of cells in the body and reproductive cells form and change. She also studies diseases that affect the brain and nervous system, such as Parkinson's disease, and challenges related to difficulty having children in both men and women.

Education and early career

Reijo Pera was born in Iron River, Wisconsin, and was the youngest of six siblings. She began her college education at the University of Wisconsin–Superior as a business major. However, during her third year, she took a class on human genetics for students not majoring in science, which changed her interests. She switched to studying biology and earned her bachelor's degree in 1983. This made her the first person in her family to complete a four-year college degree.

After earning her bachelor's degree, she went to Kansas State University to work as a research technician. She later completed a master's degree in entomology there. She then attended Cornell University, where she earned a doctorate in biochemistry in 1993. During this time, she worked in the laboratory of Tim Huffaker. Her research focused on studying mitotic and meiotic mutants in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In 1993, Reijo Pera became a postdoctoral researcher at the Whitehead Institute, which is connected to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While working in the laboratory of David C. Page, she studied genes on the Y chromosome that are linked to male infertility. Her research included identifying genes that cause a complete loss of sperm.

Research career

In 1997, Reijo Pera became an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2003, she was promoted to Associate Professor and became co-director of the UCSF Human Development Center. In 2007, she moved her laboratory to Stanford University, where she was a professor. She later became the director of Stanford's Center for Human Stem Cell Research and Education, as well as the Center for Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology. She also held the title of George D. Smith endowed Professor.

In 2014, she became Vice President of Research and Economic Development at Montana State University. She worked to improve science education in public universities. During her time there, she helped increase the university's research spending to $131 million and raised the number of student research projects by over 20 percent. In 2019, she moved to California Polytechnic State University to serve as Vice President of Research and Economic Development.

Reijo Pera has mentioned that her experience with a rare type of ovarian cancer, called a granulosa cell tumor, influenced her decision to study human development and fertility. This cancer caused her to lose her ability to have children.

In men, her research team studied causes of male infertility. In a study from 2000, she found that some men with infertility have gene changes that affect DNA repair. These changes can lead to problems with cell division and the creation of healthy sperm. Her team also explored ways to help men with infertility by studying how immature sperm cells develop. They discovered that immature sperm cells can be made from skin cells through a process that changes the cells into a special type of stem cell. These cells can be used to study different body cells and diseases. While these studies sometimes raise questions about how the technology might be used, the research is focused on gaining knowledge to help men create healthy sperm.

Reijo Pera has also worked to improve pregnancy chances during in vitro fertilization. She and her team developed a method to observe embryos under a microscope as they divide for the first time. They measured how quickly embryos divided into cells and used this information to predict which embryos were most likely to lead to a successful pregnancy. This method correctly identified the healthiest embryos with 93% accuracy. This work was named one of the Top 10 Biomedical Breakthroughs by Time in 2010.

In addition, Reijo Pera has studied human diseases, including Parkinson's disease. She and her team focused on understanding how stem cells develop into specialized adult cells. They looked at key events that happen in embryos one week after fertilization and measured how genes are activated. They found that certain genes from a type of virus in human DNA help control gene activity during early development and protect embryos from other viruses. These genes act as switches that can turn genes on or off, helping maintain the ability of stem cells to become any type of cell.

Reijo Pera has worked to apply her research to real-world solutions by starting companies focused on infertility. In 2008, she co-founded Auxogyn, Inc. In 2015, Auxogyn merged with Fertility Authorities to form Progyny, a company that helps large companies provide fertility treatment coverage for their female employees. In 2018, Progyny was named a "Disruptor 50" by CNBC. The company went public on the NASDAQ in October 2019 and had a market value of $3.5–4 billion in 2022.

Awards and honors

• Top 10 Biomedical Discoveries, Time, 2010
• Honorary Doctorate of Humanities, University of Wisconsin–Superior, 2009
• Twenty Notable Women Leaders in the US, Newsweek, 2006
• Searle Scholars Program, 1998