Research in the Vanden Brink Lab is focused on understanding peri-menarcheal years with the goal of precisely defining divergences in reproductive axis calibration and the nutritional and intermediary metabolic mechanisms that underlie abnormal trajectories in female reproductive development leading to conditions such as Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS), also known as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). We are particularly interested in the role of nutrition and the food environment in PMOS during adolescence, as well as understanding how precisely ovarian function matures and ovulatory capacity develops during adolescence.