Brittany Vining

I have always had an interest in developmental and reproductive biology, and through visiting Hudson Institute during a short research placement in 2019, I knew that this was a place I would feel supported for a PhD. Finding the Sex Developmental Research group felt as though this was the perfect alignment of my interests!

Intersex conditions are those in which a baby is born with neither typical male nor female genitalia and, in around 50 per cent of cases, we don't know the genetical aetiology underpinning these differences. In my research, I am looking at which genes are switched on by an important transcription factor called SOX9. SOX9 is present in both males and females, but in males (in conjunction with the Y chromosome gene SRY) this switch gene helps to promote typical male-sex development. Identifying targets of SOX9 will help expand our understanding of variations leading to intersex conditions, and uncover the currently unknown processes in sex development.