Dr Natalie Trigg is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow at the University of Newcastle and HMRI’s Reproductive and Family Health Research Program. Dr Trigg works with a multidisciplinary research group to characterise the paternal epigenetic contribution to male fertility and offspring health.
Dr Trigg’s continued interest in the sperm epigenome, more specifically sperm small non-coding RNAs drives her research to advance the understanding of the paternal contribution to the embryo and offspring.
Dr Trigg’s career in science began at the University of Newcastle completing a Bachelor of Biotechnology in 2015. After completing her undergraduate degree, Natalie worked for world-renowned reproductive biologist, Professor John Aitken. She then commenced a PhD in 2017, where she led seminal research exploring the influence of environmental exposures on the sperm epigenome. At the conclusion of her PhD, Dr Trigg was recruited to Associate Professor Colin Conine’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. In this position, she gained specialised training in assisted reproductive techniques (embryo microinjection, intracytoplasmic sperm injection and embryo transfer) and RNA sequencing (small RNA and mRNA).
In 2026, Dr Trigg began an ARC DECRA Fellowship to investigate the dynamic nature of the sperm RNA profile during post testicular maturation and examine the impact of sperm RNAs on early embryo development and offspring health.
