Matthew Dean, PhD

Dr. Matthew Dean is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Joanna Burdette at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Dr. Dean received a MS in Reproductive Physiology from West Virginia University, where he studied ovarian follicle growth and selection of the dominant follicle for ovulation. He then received his PhD in Biology from Idaho State University, where he studied the effect of ovarian steroids in metabolism of the endometrium during the pre-implantation period. For his postdoctoral research on ovarian cancer, Dr. Dean has won the Lalor Scientific Merit Award at the 2016 Society for the Study of Reproduction and won an Outstanding Abstract Award and the Presidential Poster Competition in Tumor Biology at the 2017 Endocrine Society Meeting. Dr. Dean was a DOD TEAL Scholar and a T32 postdoctoral fellowship recipient at UIC. His current research focuses on the role of the ovarian microenviroment in the spread of fallopian tube-derived high grade serous ovarian cancer. Specifically, Dr. Dean has shown that colonization of the ovary by fallopian tube-derived tumors results in more aggressive metastasis to the peritoneum. He is currently looking at the role of ovulation in colonization of the ovary, studying both chemotactic signals secreted by the ovary and the role of tearing of the ovary during the ovulatory process.