Our WashU team gathered at AAGL in New Orleans, Louisiana to advance healthcare! “AAGL is the largest medical association advancing health care for women through excellence in clinical practice, education, research, innovation, and advocacy.” AAGL
Category: Research
Dr. Kelly SUPPORT-MOM Grant Accepted
The SUPPORT-MOM study collaborates with patients, clinicians, and payer informants to design, implement, and study Contingency Management for pregnant and postpartum patients with substance use disorders. Contingency Management is one of the most powerful strategies to improve outcomes for people with substance use disorders but is understudied in the obstetric population. We will focus specifically on the interplay […]
WashU Medicine to offer reproductive sciences master’s program (Links to an external site)
Dr. Gomez-Lopez receives R01 Grant for “T Cells and IL-9 Signaling at the Maternal-Fetal Interface in Preterm Labor and Birth”
The major goal of this proposal is to unveil non-infectious causes of preterm labor and birth and may lead to the development of a treatment – such as vitamin D, which is FDA-approved during pregnancy – to reduce the risk of preterm birth. “T Cells and IL-9 Signaling at the Maternal-Fetal Interface in Preterm Labor […]
ADHD meds may help pregnant patients control opioid use disorder (Links to an external site)
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that pregnant people who took ADHD medications while also being treated for opioid use disorder continued to take medication to address their opioid use disorder about two months longer than patients who stopped taking ADHD medications. These patients also required fewer emergency room visits […]
Photoacoustic imaging improves diagnostic accuracy of cancerous ovarian lesions (Links to an external site)
Quing Zhu, working with Matthew Powell, MD, and Cary Siegel, MD, from the School of Medicine, developed a new imaging method to better diagnose lesions in the ovaries and adjacent adnexa that may help to avoid unnecessary surgeries. This image shows a woman with pelvic mass and BRCA1 mutation. The arrows point to the right […]
Dr. Gomez-Lopez published in eBioMedicine
Dr. Nardhy Gomez-Lopez’s paper “Blockade of IL-6R prevents preterm birth and adverse neonatal outcomes” was published in eBioMedicine. Evidence before this study Prematurity remains as the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality before five years of age globally. One in every three preterm infants is born to a pregnant individual with inflammation of the […]
Celia Santi, MD, PhD, named the James P. Crane Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Dr. Celia Santi, MD, PhD, an internationally renowned and respected leader in the field of Reproductive Biology, has been named the James P. Crane Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “We are exceedingly fortunate to count Dr. Santi among our esteemed faculty. Her exceptional contributions to groundbreaking […]
Premal Thaker, MD named the inaugural David & Lynn Mutch Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Premal H. Thaker, MD, MS, an accomplished clinician investigator and Director of Gynecologic Oncology Clinical Trials, has been named the David & Lynn Mutch Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “We are truly fortunate to have Dr. Thaker as a valued member of our faculty. Her […]
Khabele Delivers Keynote at Meharry Research Week
In September, Dr. Dineo Khabele, Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, delivered the Keynote address at Meharry Research Week at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN. Khabele spoke on the topic of OB/GYN related cancers. Every summer, the Office of Medical Student Research hosts the WUSM Meharry Summer Research Program (Meharry […]
Nelson Society Partners with David G. Mutch to Launch Residency Research Scholarship
Residents may now submit their applications for the David G. Mutch Residency Research Scholarship. This scholarship was generously started by David G. Mutch, MD, the Ira C. and Judith Gall Professor, in partnership with the Nelson Alumni Society to support and enhance the scholarly research activity of residents. The scholarship will give two $1,000 awards, twice per academic […]
$11.6 million grant supports innovative research in endometrial cancer (Links to an external site)
Cases of endometrial cancer — a gynecologic cancer of the lining of the uterus — have increased in recent decades, as have deaths caused by the condition. To spur new strategies to prevent and treat endometrial cancer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded researchers at Washington University […]
Dr. Mullen receives 2023 Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Career Development Award
Dr. Maggie Mullen has been awarded grant funding through the 2023 Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Career Development Award, in partnership with Pelotonia & AACR, Targeting platinum chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer. **This two-year grant starts in September.** These accomplishments are impossible without our amazing research and clinical teams and the sponsorship of our […]
Apply for the 2023 Cycle 2 of LAB Awards, now introducing a “Mini Lab” Award!
The Washington University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is soliciting applications for 2023 Cycle 2 of the L.A.B. Award internal pilot grants. The goal of this program is to promote research and grantsmanship by providing pilot funding for residents, clinical fellows, postdoctoral research fellows and associates, and junior faculty in the Department who have no startup or […]
Frolova named Doris Duke program scholar
Antonina (Toni) Frolova, MD, PhD, a maternal-fetal medicine physician and Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, applied and was selected to be a scholar in the Doris Duke COVID-19 Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists (CFRCS) program at Washington University School of Medicine. As an early career physician-scientist, the program will benefit Dr. Frolova’s navigation of this stage […]
Dr. Powell in “FDA to Decide on Dostarlimab Plus Chemo Approval in dMMR/MSI-H Advanced Endometrial Cancer in 4 Months”
The team presented the confirmatory additional endpoints of the Ruby trial which showed with the addition of dostarlimab immunotherapy added to chemotherapy for patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer, there is a 71% improvement in progression-free survival or death for the biomarker-positive population and a 34% improvement in the overall population. Although we are […]
WashU Gynecologic Oncology Tissue Bank celebrated collecting its 100th tissue sample
The WashU Gynecologic Oncology Tissue Bank celebrated collecting its 100th tissue sample for bench-to-bedside research endeavors. Along with this notable achievement in specimen collection, the labs of Drs. Dineo Khabele and Maggie Mullen have instituted a newly organized process for collecting and managing samples, and are developing research on patient-derived organoids. “We couldn’t have done it without the hard […]
STL OBGYN Society Research Meeting!
WashU took first (Dr. Amanda Compadre, mentor Dr. Mullen) and third place (Dr. Bridget Huysman, mentor Dr. Raghuraman). We are so proud!
CRepHS and GynOnc celebrate new research progress
The WashU Gynecologic Oncology Tissue Bank just celebrated collecting its 100th tissue sample for bench-to-bedside research endeavors. Along with this notable achievement in specimen collection, the labs of Drs. Dineo Khabele and Maggie Mullen with the Center for Reproductive Health Sciences (CRepHS) and the Division of Gynecologic Oncology (GynOnc) have instituted a newly organized process for collecting and managing […]
L.A.B Award Winners – Spring 2023
Congratulations to the latest recipients of the Department of OB/GYN’s Lucy, Anarcha, and Betsey (L.A.B.) Award named in honor of Lucy, Anarcha, and Betsey—the enslaved women whose sacrifice, without consent, nearly 200 years ago allows surgical repair for women with vesicovaginal fistulas today. Julia Burd, MDClinical Fellow, Maternal-Fetal MedicineMentor: Nandini Raghuraman, MD, MSCITitle: Method of Cervical Assessment in Patients with Preterm […]
Dr. Wang cited in “New, non-invasive imaging tool maps uterine contractions during labor”
“The study team, led by Yong Wang, Ph.D., and Alan Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., at Washington University in St. Louis, and Alison Cahill, M.D., at the University of Texas at Austin, initially developed EMMI using a sheep model and reported their findings in Science Translational Medicine. In the new study, the team tailored EMMI for human clinical use […]
Dr. Santi in “Fast-Acting Nonhormonal Male Birth Control Prevents Pregnancy in Mice” (Links to an external site)
Hormonal birth control methods are highly effective, but for many people who take them, they have undesirable side effects. But these could someday be avoided with the advent of fast-acting nonhormonal contraceptives. In a study published February 14 in Nature Communications, a group of Weill Cornell Medicine pharmacologists report a male contraceptive that prevented 100 percent […]
Zhexian Sun in featured paper
Media Advisory: New MRI method provides detailed view of the placenta during pregnancy Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new method to process MRI scans to reveal the distinct compartments of the placenta, take measurements of oxygen levels in each region and determine if there are malformations in blood vessels […]
Leaders in maternal-fetal medicine making connections
A group of WashU OBGYN faculty and staff, and a fellow, are presenting on the topics of labor, prematurity, ultrasound/imaging, reproductive health equity, and more at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s 43rd annual “Pregnancy Meeting.” Congratulations to our accomplished OBGYN team members: Ebony Carter, MD, MPH; Emily Diveley, BSN; Antonina Frolova, MD, PhD; Cassy Hardy, RN; Jeannie Kelly, […]
Santi Lab publishes “A selective inhibitor of the sperm-specific potassium channel SLO3 impairs human sperm function” (Links to an external site)
To fertilize an egg, human sperm must undergo a process in which the membrane becomes more negative inside. The ion channel responsible for this membrane hyperpolarization has long been unclear. In this publication, the Santi and Denton labs describe a screen to identify inhibitors of a strong candidate – the sperm-specific potassium channel SLO3. They […]
PGY-2 Research Retreat
November 16, 2022 was our Annual PGY-2 Research Retreat. We talked study design, mentorship, data analysis, IRB, instit and dept resources, scientific presentations, & had a fun interactive career panel discussion
Maternal Morbidity After Double Balloon Catheter Management of Cesarean Scar and Cervical Pregnancies
Abstract from Obstetrics & Gynecology Journal: “We performed a retrospective cohort study of all Type 1 cesarean scar pregnancies (n=18) or cervical pregnancies (n=5) at an academic tertiary center after treatment with a cervical double balloon catheter from 2018 to 2022 to evaluate outcomes and maternal morbidity. Cervical double balloon catheter treatment was associated with […]
Multi-scale imaging technique may enable objective assessment of myofascial pain (Links to an external site)
ICTS makes an impact in investigator’s research journey (Links to an external site)
BMES Annual Meeting – Research Announcements
Research reveals happening! Clinical researchers under the direction of PI Yong Wang, PhD, have poster/oral presentations at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual meeting 10/13-15; OBGYN engineering collaborator Dr. Christine O’Brien also presenting! Women’s Health poster presentations: Thursday, Oct 13, 2022; 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM CDT: “Development of Uterine Peristalsis Imaging (UPI) in Normal […]
Ebony B. Carter, MD, MPH, secures NIH R21 award for EleVATE
Dr. Ebony Carter, Associate Professor, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and Chief, Division of Clinical Research, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine, received an R21 award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Carter’s research titled “EleVATE-Clinicians: a tool to […]
A HISTORY OF RESEARCH: 1906 Pure Food & Drug Act—The Birth of the FDA
In 1906, an American novelist and journalist by the name of Upton Sinclair wrote his polarizing novel The Jungle. The book showcased the harsh realities of Chicago and industrialized cities, including the living conditions and exploitation of immigrants. Part of his novel explored the meat industry, and he hoped by showing how horrible the work […]