Joy Winuthayanon

Principal Investigator & Instructor

Associate Professor, OB/GYN & Women Health, School of Medicine

Feel free to email me anytime at w.winuthayanon@health.missouri.edu. If you want to see me face-to-face, my office is in the NextGen building room 3015 - drop me an email so that I can make sure to be in my office when you are there.

Personal Information: I am originally from Thailand. My hometown is in Nakhonpathom Province - yes, it's a little further away from Bangkok. You can call me Joy as my last name is not that easy to pronounce. But click this if you want to try! Fun fact about me, I like to skate and used to play Roller Derby! I like sushi and Thai food.

Ask Me About: Being a first-generation college student. Being a woman in science. Being a non-native English speaker. Being from outside the U.S. Undergraduate research experience. Getting into graduate school. Time management. Doing female reproductive biology research. Developing non-hormonal contraception. Anything about the class.

Teaching Philosophy: Students are motivated to learn when they are working without fear of failure. So don't be afraid to fail and learn from it. 

Research & Educational Background: I completed a Bachelor of Nursing Science from Ramathibodi School of Nursing in 2002 and my Ph.D. (Physiology) from the Faculty of Science in 2009, both from Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. Because of my interest in women’s health, I underwent training in midwifery for several months during the final year of nursing school. To integrate basic science knowledge with clinical relevance, I have directed my interests towards a career path in reproductive sciences focusing on reproductive physiology in women. My post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS/NIH) focused on the estrogen and phytoestrogen effects on female reproductive function using mouse models. I started my lab at the School of Molecular Biosciences at Washington State University in 2015, and my lab relocated to the University of Missouri in 2022. Our research program sets out to decipher the roles of hormonal regulation in the oviduct and uterus during fertilization, preimplantation embryo development, and embryo transport using genetically engineered animal models. Our research team is also developing new “on-demand” contraceptive methods for women by targeting the semen liquefaction process.