Celia Santi, MD, PhD

Related Links

• Dr. Santi’s Lab
• Dr. Santi’s Publications

Education

• MD: Universidad de la Republica-Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay (1992)
• PhD, Biophysics – Physiology: National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico (1998)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (2001)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship: Washington University, St. Louis, MO (2005)

Recognition

Memberships:

Sociedad de Biofisicos Latinoamericanos (SOBLA)
American Society of Andrology

Dr. Santi’s long-term research interest is to understand how ion channel activity affects reproductive outcomes. Her work has been focusing especially in the role of potassium and calcium channels in sperm physiology, with special emphasis on the role that these channels play in sperm capacitation and the acrosome reaction.

She obtained her PhD degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she studied the role of calcium channels in sperm physiology and conducted electrophysiological and calcium imaging experiments in spermatogenic cells. During her postdoctoral training in Dr. Terry Snutch’s lab at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, she carried out experiments studying the expression and modulation of low-voltage-activated calcium channels. She then moved to the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow and in 2005 she became a Senior Scientist in Dr. Salkoff’s lab. There she expanded her research to include molecular biology and electrophysiological experiments with the family of SLO potassium channels.

As an Instructor she carried out an independent line of research combining my previous knowledge of the role of ion channels in sperm physiology and the expertise in molecular biology, genetics and biophysics that I acquired studying SLO family channels in the Salkoff lab.

Dr. Santi is currently the James P. Crane Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and a faculty member in the Center for Reproductive Health Sciences. She is a recipient of several awards and fellowships including NIH-funded R21 and R01 projects.