Women researchers of UConn School of Medicine gathered on March 7 to share their latest research projects and findings ranging from addiction to the zika virus at the Second Annual Women’s Health Clinical, Health Disparities, Basic Science Research Symposium hosted by the Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS).
“It is testament to the hard work that everyone put into this women’s health research symposium that we get to do it again this year,” shared the Chair of the GWIMS Steering Committee Dr. Marja Hurley, the UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, professor of Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery, and associate dean of the Health Career Opportunity Programs. “We are sharing research that is focused on women’s health as it is especially important that there is research done in both sexes. I hope our women at UConn continue to be innovative and push the boundaries of science and medicine.”
In addition to scientific poster session presentations, the Academic Rotunda event delivered welcome remarks by Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, CEO of UConn Health applauding the women researchers: “We are grateful for the impact you make every day,” shared Agwunobi.
A special keynote address was also shared with attendees by the visiting Monica M. Laronda, Ph.D., director of the Research for the Fertility & Hormone Preservation Program of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. It is a destination health system for children accessing fertility preservation treatment, especially some of the 16,000 U.S. children experiencing a cancer diagnosis annually, wishing to preserve their ovarian or gonal function via cryopreservation for potential future tissue transplant. Laronda Lab’s mission is driven by the hope of these patients and families that see themselves or their children as thriving future adults with the aim to provide these children with the “right to an open future.”
One of the many scientific research poster presentations was by second-year UConn medical student Sai Viswanathan, 24, of Avon about women and migraines.
“Migraines are very common, especially in women. My research focused on optic nerve pain in migraines,” shared Viswanathan who has identified a possible new biomarker for why people are experiencing migraines after examining their optic nerve imaging scans.
Several research project posters focused on endometriosis, a chronic, debilitating disease where the uterine lining grows outside the uterus. It is the leading cause of hysterectomies among reproductive-age women with pain and infertility. It impacts, 1 in 10 women in Connecticut, 6.5 million women in the U.S., and 200 women worldwide.
One of the endometriosis posters were presented by Kayceety Mullaj, OB/GYN clinical researcher at UConn Health, and Jasmina Kuljancic, program manager at The Jackson Laboratory, on “EndoRISE: A Multidisciplinary Endometriosis Program Empowered by Community Outreach and Legislative Advocacy.”
EndoRISE is a collaboration involving JAX, UConn Health, and the state of Connecticut to advance research, innovation, support and education for endometriosis, a highly invasive, under-diagnosed and under-researched disease. The program also hosts the first-of-its-kind, publicly funded endometriosis data and biorepository program at UConn Health and JAX that centers on a collection of surgical, clinical, and biological information from patients at UConn Health and statewide.
“EndoRISE is a biorepository but also a program bringing increased awareness to endometriosis, research, and education,” shared Mullaj. “We really want to understand the biology of this disease.” The program is also researching the co-concurring autoimmune system condition connections that 33 percent of endometriosis patients may experience such as asthma, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, among others.
“We hope the biospecimens will advance research. We are advocating for more research and funding to develop a test or biomarker for endometriosis,” said Kuljancic who stressed the importance of more community outreach to help identify more young women with endometriosis symptoms. “We are doing many educational events to educate providers, especially new trainees, but also even school nurses, as the school nurse is the first-place adolescents go. We want to make sure nurses have the information.”
Second-year UConn School of Medicine student Stephanie Chinwo, 25, also presented her research poster. She is the daughter of immigrants from Nigeria. She received her master’s degree from the Young Innovative Investigator Program (YIIP) at UConn School of Medicine before entering medical school at UConn. “I always wanted to go to medical school, but the YIPP program experience hooked me into wanting to become a physician-scientist.”
After growing up in an underserved community in New Jersey Chinwo says she was inspired to perform “A Qualitative and Quantitative Pilot Study of the Maternal Birth and Postpartum Experiences, through the Lens of OB Trauma-Informed Care” with 52 Labor & Delivery unit patients participating in a survey at UConn Health overseen by her mentor OB/GYN Dr. Dyanne Tappin.
“I always want to give back to my community. It’s important to improve disparities in care to make sure everyone can have access to equitable health,” says Chinwo. “By identifying gaps in care, we can identify better care for the future. We hope to expand our pilot to see if it can be replicated and improve the care being made.”
“It was wonderful to see Stephanie come over to L & D to do the survey looking through a trauma-informed care lens. She did a great job with data collection and analysis of each woman’s experience, how we can improve, and how we can better support women here and at home,” shared Tappin.
