David Keefe, MD, Oocyte Keynote, NYU Ob/Gyn, Professor, Department of Cell Biology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Dr. Keefe is an internationally recognized clinician scientist whose early work focused on the role of telomeres in mammalian gametes and has more recently been involved in studies of parthenogenesis and retroelement expression.
Dr. Keefe traced the answer to telomeres, the protective caps on our chromosomes, and their surprising partnership with “jumping genes” called retrotransposons. He proposed that the early embryo rapidly rebuilds its telomeres without telomerase, and may even rewrite parts of its own genome along the way. He also drew a striking line between tumor and embryo biology:
“Cancers are not wildly innovative; they co-opt things that were developed.”
And on the power of the egg itself:
“If you take a 40-year-old woman and you give her a 20-year-old egg, she’s got the 20-year-old’s fertility.”