Dr Rose Upton is a conservation and reproductive biologist at the University of Newcastle.

Her research focusses on the role of environmental stressors on organism health and reproduction, and application of assisted reproductive technologies, such as sperm cryopreservation and IVF, to the conservation of wildlife. This has led to her involvement in a number of initiatives to help advance application of these technologies to conservation programs within and outside of Australia.

Dr Upton currently investigates the effects of environmental stressors such as climate change and disease, on organism health and reproduction. Measures of organism health, such as genetic diversity, microbiome and immunity are closely linked to reproductive output. Current projects in this space include investigations into biomarkers for both immunity and reproduction in threatened amphibians, comparisons of differential gene expression, immunity and sperm quality in both disease affected and unaffected frogs, differences in skin microbiome in captive and wild frogs to improve husbandry conditions and understanding of causes of mortality, and comparing the use of skin swabs and tissue biopsies for genetic investigations. In future, She plans to expand these multidisciplinary approaches to complement and expand conservation of threatened species.