Heba Elwa

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I'm a free spirit, an inquisitive curious researcher with a sociable outgoing personality and a humanitarian vision. My current research project focuses on the impact of reproductive senescence on sperm quality, behavior within the female tract, and the development of progeny.

Aging has been associated with deterioration of whole body functions. My goal is to focus specifically on male reproductive senescence which may lead to higher risk of serious fertility and offspring problems in humans. For instance, paternal aging has been implicated in male’s lower sexual function, sperm quality and fertility as well as an increased risk of diseases in the offspring especially neurodevelopmental disorders e.g. autism and schizophrenia. Using Drosophila melanogaster as my model system, I want to study the age-dependent effects on sperm phenotype, behavior, and early development of offspring. This research will present both evolutionary and biomedical implications through characterization of phenotypic alterations in sperm quality that are related to reproductive senescence. On the evolutionary level, determination of the age-dependent trade-offs governing reproductive investment may be an important future direction within the context of the life history theory. The behavioral phenotypic changes associated with aging will shed a light on their effects in sexual selection whether in terms of modulation of male competitive abilities or cryptic female choice. Presence of any aspect of sperm quality deterioration will be analyzed to explain whether old males modulate the number of sperm produced in each ejaculate as a trade-off to produce better quality over higher number or that lower quality sperm is ejected by the D. melanogaster female.