About Us

Erin Reinl, PhD (she/her/hers), is an Instructor in the Department of OB/GYN. In 2016, she graduated from Washington University with a PhD in Molecular Cellular Biology under the mentorship of Dr. Sarah England. Her doctoral research, funded by an NIH F31 fellowship, focused on ion channels involved in uterine contractility as it relates to pregnancy, labor, and preterm birth. As an NIH F32-funded postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, under the mentorship of Dr. Margaret McCarthy, Dr. Reinl studied maternal-fetal crosstalk and the development of sex differences in neonates. Dr. Reinl’s up-to-date list of peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts can be found in the PubMed database (author search: Reinl EL).

Ali Ahmady, PhD (he, his, him), is an Associate Professor and Lab Director at the Fertility Reproductive Medicine Center (FRMC) for the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility, Department of OB/GYN at Washington University. He has been involved in the field of assisted reproductive technology (ART) as an embryologist since the late 1980s. Throughout his career, he has directed nine IVF and Andrology/Endocrinology laboratories and constructed five ART laboratories.

Dr. Ahmady received his Ph.D. in Embryology from the National University of Singapore. His post-graduate research focused on male infertility. He developed the Single Sperm Curling Test for selecting viable sperm in ICSI and a hamster ICSI assay for evaluating the fertilization ability of sperm from patients with severe male factor infertility. He also produced the first ICSI live birth in mice. Dr. Ahmady authored a book, co-authored a chapter in Atlas of Embryology, and has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Ahmady is certified as a High Complexity Lab Director by the American Board of Bioanalysis. He also holds a certificate of qualification as a Lab Director in Andrology and Endocrinology from the New York State Department of Health. He is a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and past chair (2022) of the Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Biology Special Interest Group, and a member of the coding committee. He also is a member of the American Association of Bioanalysts and the College of Reproductive Biology.

Dr. England joined Washington University School of Medicine as Professor of OB/GYN in July 2011. Before that, she was on the faculty at the University of Iowa in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics for 14 years.

Dr. England’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying uterine function during pregnancy. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, the March of Dimes, and other funding agencies. She has authored over 100 research and review articles and has reviewed for over 50 journals in basic science, translational, and clinical fields. Dr. England serves on review committees for multiple funding agencies including the NIH, American Heart Association, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She was a former Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and worked in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for one year on policies related to maternal child health issues, women’s health, and the healthcare workforce. 

Dr. England is the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She also directs the Center for Reproductive Health Sciences. Dr. England is also a Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology and a member of the Center for Women’s Health Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering. Her memberships include: National Academy of Medicine, Society for Reproductive Investigation, Society for the Study of Reproduction, Perinatal Research Society, American Physiological Society, and Society for General Physiologists.