Mike J. McGrew, Ph.D.

Dr Mike McGrew is a professor at the Roslin Institute, part of the Royal Dick School of
Veterinary Studies and the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Dr McGrew earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in Biochemistry
from Boston University Medical School. He is engaged in applying stem cell technologies to conserve bird species. The McGrew laboratory studies a kind of animal stem cell, the germ cell, which produces the sperm and eggs of birds. His research group developed a serum free culture medium to grow chicken germ cells indefinitely in vitro and developed a genetically sterile surrogate host chicken that carry the germ cells from any breed of chicken and produce healthy offspring. They use these systems to investigate the genes involved in sexual determination and gametogenesis, develop genome editing technologies and for ‘biobanking’ of bird reproductive cells.