The Skinner laboratory started back in 1984 when Dr.
Michael K. Skinner obtained a position as an Assistant Professor in
the Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of
Medicine, Nashville, TN. The laboratory also participated in the
Vanderbilt Reproductive Biology Research Center. The laboratory
dealt with an analysis of cellular functions and cell-cell
interactions in the testis and ovary. Dr. Skinner was then
recruited and moved as an Associate Professor in 1991 to the
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and
Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco,
CA. The laboratory was part of the Reproductive Endocrinology
Center and the Developmental Biology Program in Biological
Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA. The
laboratories research was designed to investigate the mechanisms
regulating testis and ovary cellular function, cell-cell
interactions and cellular differentiation, with emphasis in the
area of reproductive biology.
Dr. Skinner was then recruited by Washington State University to
form and direct the Center for Reproductive Biology and accepted a
position as Director for the Center for Reproductive Biology, joint
Center with Washington State University, Pullman, WA and the
University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, and as a Professor in the
School of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University. In
1996 he moved his laboratory to Washington State University in
Pullman, Washington where it currently resides. The Center
for Reproductive Biology grew to over 90 faculty with 8 core
laboratories. In 2002 WSU requested Dr. Skinner also
establish the Center for Integrated Biotechnology. The CIB grew to
over 170 faculty with 10 core laboratories. In 2008 Dr.
Skinner stepped down as Director from both centers to focus his
efforts on his research and laboratory.