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 […]
Category: Research
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
ICTS makes an impact in investigator’s research journey (Links to an external site)

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 […]
Study: Breast milk of moms vaccinated against COVID-19 contains protective antibodies for at least 80 days (Links to an external site)
