Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci and psychology alumnus Ian Klepcyk ’24 collaborated with colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin to finally complete a four year long project that was accepted for publication in Hormones and Behavior, titled “Chronic periadolescent leuprolide exposure affects the expression of multiple genes in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland with a different pattern of expression in female and male Long-Evans rats.” This project is one of the first studies to investigate changes in the brain associated with exposure to puberty blockers for a prolonged period of time in an animal model.

Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci co-chaired and presented a workshop at the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, titled “Moving Forward: A Workshop on Issues Facing Transgender Research (Models, Community, and Funding),” in addition to a poster presentation, titled “Chronic periadolescent leuprolide exposure affects the expression of multiple genes in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland with a different pattern of expression in female and male Long-Evans rats,” co-authored by psychology graduate Ian Klepcyk ’24.

Recent graduate Ian Klepcyk ’24 and Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci published one of two submitted entries in the Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior, published by Springer. This entry also includes videos Ian filmed in the lab as a companion to the written submission. The entry can be read here.

Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci was invited to give a talk at the symposium titled Gender Incongruence at the 63rd annual meeting of the European Society of Pediatric Endocrinology in den Hague, Netherlands, in September. The talk “Animal Models of Transgender Care: Advantages and Drawbacks” was well received by a mostly clinical audience.

Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci and current students Megan Kelly ’23, Amanda Gale ’23, Jasmine Belfield ’23, and Natalie Williams ’25, as well as alums Layla Avendano ’22, Cler Estoestra ’22, Brooke Frohock ’21, Lily Yepez ’22, and Bernard Sencherey ’22, recently published the article “Chronic periadolescent leuprolide exposure affects the development of reproductive physiology and behavior of female and male rats differently, but both mature after treatment termination” in Biology of Sex Differences.