Alison Roennfeldt

My research is focussed on hypoxic (low oxygen signalling). The first half of my project builds on my honours research where I established a high throughput cell-based screening system to identify novel regulators of hypoxic signalling proteins. In 2022 we received an Australian Government subsidised grant from the National Drug Discovery Centre to complete a 300,000 compound small molecule screen using these systems where we aim to identify novel drugs which could be used to control hypoxic signalling and therefore have applications in treating metabolic disease or ischemic diseases such as stroke.

The second half of my project is focussed on investigating the role of hypoxia in the control of ovulation. There are two main hypoxic proteins called HIF-1 and HIF-2, with evidence suggesting they are involved in ovulation. However, their exact role and mechanism of regulation remain undefined. I am interested in determining what specifically regulates HIF-2 activity in ovulation and its interplay with the Progesterone Receptor, which is a key controlling protein of ovulation. Furthermore, I aim to determine the specific role of HIF-2 in ovulation and how this differs from the role of HIF-1.