Daniel S McConnell, PhD

Daniel S. McConnell, Ph.D., research scientist, epidemiology in the School of Public Health, retired from active faculty status on December 31, 2024. 

Dr. McConnell earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan in 1991. Following this, he gained experience as a post-doctoral fellow in 1991 and as a research investigator in 1993 within the Reproductive Sciences Program. He advanced to the position of assistant research scientist in 1998, then to associate research scientist in 2010, and eventually to research scientist in 2022 in the Department of Epidemiology. 

Dr. McConnell has been instrumental in advancing the understanding of the endocrinology of reproductive health of women. His entire career at the University of Michigan has focused on developing new, more sensitive and accurate assays for blood-based biomarkers, especially for steroids and other hormones. These have been most notably applied to the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a longitudinal multisite study focusing on the biological/psychosocial changes occurring during the menopausal transition. SWAN started in 1996 and has been ongoing since that date. Dr McConnell served as the associate director then director of the U01 SWAN Central Laboratory developing new and improved bioassays (serum Estradiol, Testosterone, FSH, SHBG, DHEAS and urinary FSH, LH, E1G and PdG) to enable study of the menopause transition. He also served as associate director then director of the P-30 Assays and Reagents Core Facility in the Reproductive Sciences Program and director of the Iodination Core Facility. These facilities later expanded to become the Central Ligand Assay Satellite Services (CLASS) Laboratory. Duties included day-to-day oversight and monitoring of clinical and research assays, results, quality control and quality assurance of this College of American Pathologists (CAP) accredited laboratory. Later, the CLASS Biorepository (one of the very first academic biorepositories to receive CAP accreditation) was created to securely store and distribute large numbers of biological specimens for many research projects both within the University of Michigan, nationally and internationally. Both the CLASS laboratory and the CLASS Biorepository will continue after his retirement. 

The Regents now salute this distinguished faculty member by naming Daniel S. McConnell, research scientist emeritus, epidemiology.