Carol Hanna, Ph.D. is a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Reproductive and Developmental Sciences at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC).  She is an investigator with the Oregon Permanent Contraception Research Center (OPERM) and Director of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Core.

Dr. Hanna’s research is focused on development of novel, nonhormonal contraceptives for women using multiple platforms.  By leveraging mechanisms of meiosis regulation, on-demand or reversible contraception strategies are being investigated by targeting specific proteins expressed in the oocyte for inhibition or selective degradation to disrupt the ability of the ovulated egg to undergo fertilization.  Additionally, collaborative multidisciplinary studies within the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded OPERM Center explore nonsurgical alternatives to permanent contraception.  Dr. Hanna and her colleagues have demonstrated the feasibility to deliver sclerosing agents with a thermal responsive, nontoxic gel to fallopian tubes for the induction of tubal occlusion, creating a blockade of sperm and egg interaction.

As director of the ART Core, Dr. Hanna and her team are continually optimizing conventional nonhuman primate ART such as semen collection and cryopreservation, artificial insemination, in vitro oocyte maturation and fertilization, embryo culture and cryopreservation, and advanced micromanipulation techniques including embryo injection, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, polar body biopsy, assisted hatching, and blastocyst biopsy.  Since 2016 she was been working with gene editing approaches in to develop specific models of disease and is part of the NIH Somatic Cell Genome Editing Resource focused on creating a reporter system to test next generation gene editing technology.