Ovarian Cancer & Ovulation: Is there a link?

Former BIRCWH scholar Joanna Burdette was featured in the November 28 issue of UIC news for her work on examining the link between ovarian cancer and ovulation. While ovarian cancer remains prevalent, especially among post-menopausal women, the specific epithelial subtype responsible for disease development is not entirely known.

Dr. Burdette is exploring the relationship between the hormonal changes involved in ovulation and the development of ovarian cancer- specfically, how ovulation may impact a signaling pathway that transforms healthy cells into  cancer. Her works foucses on the development of ovarian cancer in the cells of two distinct areas: the ovarian surface and the lining of the fallopian tubes.

Dr. Burdette is accomplishing her work though the development of three-dimensional cell cultures within the laboratory, and focusing on one particular signaling molecule called Akt, which has been demonstrated to be activated in the development of ovarian cancer .

The full article, featuring an interview with Dr. Burdette, can be found online.

We continue to be impressed and inspired by our BIRCWH scholars, both present and former, and their contributions to women's health research!

What Makes a Mentor?

Here at the UIC BIRCWH program we are continually defining and revising the concept of mentorship. We utilize feedback from our scholars, mentors, and program development team in order to pinpoint our areas of success as well as areas for improvement. Mentorship is what defines our program- but what defines mentorship?

Our team of scholars and mentors recently revisited an article by Andrés Martin titled, “Ignition Sequence: On Mentorship,” which explores what mentorship is (and is not), and offers insights into how to improve modern-day mentoring. Martin describes what we have all experienced: a process that frequently takes place, but that is rarely articulated.

Why does mentorship commonly elude articulation? How can we best capture the experience of both mentoring and mentorship? Which matrices best measure effective mentoring? These are questions with undoubtedly complicated answers that we will continue to mull over, and we hope that by initiating a discussion with our colleagues we can  better define the process of mentorship, and therefore improve mentoring on a larger scale.

The full article by Andrés Martin  is available on the UIC BIRWCH website.

Welcome, Dr. Sadia Haider!

The UIC BIRCWH team is excited to announce the addition of new BIRCWH scholar Dr. Sadia Haider. Dr. Sadia Haider is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and recently joined the UIC faculty in September 2011. Dr. Haider received her MD from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and her Masters in Public Health in maternal and child health at Harvard School of Public Health. She then completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School in 2005 which was followed by a two year Fellowship in Contraceptive Research and Family Planning at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to her arrival at UIC, Dr. Haider worked at BIDMC, Harvard Medical School where she was the Director of the Division of Family Planning and the Ryan residency program in Family Planning from 2007 to 2011.

Dr. Haider has received foundation funding to conduct research during her fellowship and as a junior faculty which has focused on the consequences of unplanned pregnancies in the U.S. and abroad. She has conducted research in Afghanistan evaluating contraceptive practices and decision-making amongst Afghan couples and evaluated the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Mexican abortion providers. She is currently a co-investigator on a qualitative study funded by Boston Children’s Hospital evaluating adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes and use of long-acting reversible contraception and the principal investigator on a study evaluating the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of primary care providers in relation to adolescent contraception.
During her time as a BIRCWH scholar, Dr. Haider plans to focus on the reproductive health disparities that affect adolescent women in the U.S. Her goal is to create effective strategies to prevent adolescent unintended pregnancy focusing on the complex interplay between the health care system, primary care providers and adolescent women’s perspective and behaviors. Dr. Haider plans to investigate adolescent females’ perceived barriers and enhancers in the prevention of unplanned pregnancies and provider’s perspectives on adolescent pregnancy prevention

Welcome, Dr. Bethany Everett!

The UIC BIRCWH team is excited to announce the addition of another BIRCWH scholar, Dr. Bethany Everett. Dr. Bethany Everett is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2012. During her training at the University of Colorado, Dr. Everett served as a researcher at the Institute for Behavioral Sciences Population Program and was selected as Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Fenway Center for Population Research in LGBT Health. Her R03-funded dissertation research focused on the social determinants of health disparities and emphasizes the synergistic impact of individual, interpersonal, and contextual factors for shaping health behaviors and outcomes among sexual minorities. Dr. Everett’s research has also received funding the National Science Foundation and the American Psychological Foundation. As a BIRCWH scholar, Dr. Everett will continue to investigate the role of social environments, discrimination, and gender expression on sexual minority women’s health behaviors and outcomes using two longitudinal data sets, the National Study of Adolescent Health and the Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women.

We look forward to working with you, Bethany!

Welcome, Dr. Kirstie Danielson!

The UIC BIRCWH team is excited to announce the addition a new BIRCWH scholar, Dr. Kirstie Danielson. Dr. Danielson is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Transplant Surgery, and a departmental affiliate in the Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UIC.  She received her PhD in Population Health, with a focus in Epidemiology, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and subsequently completed postdoctoral training in Endocrinology at the University of Chicago and Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UIC.  Building upon her research on interrelationships between diabetes, bone, and sex hormones in women, her goal is to establish an independent research program in diabetes epidemiology and women’s health at UIC, initially focused on two interrelated and synergistic tracks: the bidirectional association between diabetes and bone and sex-based differences in islet transplantation. For the first aim, Dr. Danielson will describe the prevalence and etiology of sex-based differences in bone fragility due to type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes; and following islet (insulin-producing cells) transplantation to cure type 1 diabetes. In light of recent experimental evidence demonstrating lack of the bone protein osteocalcin leads to diabetes in mice, she will determine whether bone metabolism is prospectively associated with the disease course in humans with type 1 diabetes and islet transplantation outcomes; and if there are sex-based differences. For the second aim, Dr. Danielson will explore whether there are sex-based differences in islet function and clinical outcomes following islet transplant to cure type 1 diabetes. Islets grow during pregnancy and estrogen enhances their function.  However, there have been no systematic comparisons of islet function in vitro and following transplant by sex of donor or recipient. 

Dr. Danielson focuses on chronic diseases because they encompass major public health challenges, and diabetes and bone fragility are examples of chronic diseases with differences in prevalence and outcomes by sex. Elucidating potential sex-based differences is critical for individualized medicine in preventing, treating, and curing chronic diseases.

Welcome, Dr. Melissa Lamar!

The UIC BIRCWH team would like to introduce our newest BIRCWH associate, Dr. Melissa Lamar. Dr. Lamar's research at UIC - including her recently funded K01 from NIH- focuses on identifying vascular risk factors disrupting neurocircuitry associated with the prefrontal cortex using novel neuroimaging markers including myelin mapping and the impact these factors have on executive dysfunction and depression in an aging population. 

  

Dr. Lamar has a long-standing interest in the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive and affective dysfunction in normal and pathological aging. She has focused on structural and functional neuroimaging technologies including learned during her time at the Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Institute of Psychiatry (IOP), King’s College London. Dr. Lamar focuses on experimental paradigms from both non-human primate and human lesion studies to strengthen the neuroanatomical accuracy of her work. She melds this neuroimaging approach with the Boston Process Approach to Clinical Neuropsychology. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Lamar serves as a member of staff on the Neuropsychology Service within the Department of Psychiatry.

Welcome, Melissa, and we look forward to working with you!

Congratulations to former scholar Hyun-Young Jeong!

The BIRCWH program at UIC remains invested in our former scholars and we take great pride in their continued successes.We are excited to congratulate our former scholar Hyun-Young Jeong, PharmD, PhD, on her recent promotion to Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Biopharmaceutical Sciences.

Dr. Jeong's primary interests include regulation of drug metabolizing enzymes in livers, altered pharmacokinetics of drugs in pregnancy, and general clinical/preclinincal pharmcokinetics. Additional areas of interest include molecular pharmacology, population pharmacokinetics, and nuclear receptors. 

We wish Dr. Jeong continued success in her new role, and have great confidence in her academic future. Congratulations, Dr. Jeong, from the UIC BIRCWH community!