“Gynepathologies” and their implications

Chronic non-cancerous diseases of the female reproductive tract, or  “gynepathologies,” affect well over half of all women during their lifetimes.  Gynepathologies, including endometriosis, uterine fibroids, polycystic ovarian syndrome, Asherman’s syndrome, and others, involve aberrant growth of reproductive tract tissues, often leading to symptoms of debilitating pain, bleeding and infertility. The delay between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis/treatment is typically many years – years of lost quality of life and lost opportunities for academic and professional advancement.  Young women, the age of MIT students (and even younger), are particularly impacted by endometriosis, a disease estimated to afflict 10% of women and characterized by ectopic growth of endometrial tissue throughout the abdominal cavity, often causing intense pain and infertility. The likelihood that a woman will experience a serious gynepathology before the age of 50 is about 10-fold higher than the likelihood she will be diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Center for Gynepathology Research

The Center for Gynepathology Research, launched in the fall of 2009, is centered in the MIT School of Engineering with the aim of bringing new frontiers of engineering to bear on understanding the basic biology, physiology, and pathophysiology of the female reproductive tract, in collaboration with biologists and clinicians.  It also includes research efforts focused on developing new technologies for diagnosis and treatment of these diseases, and fosters liaisons with industry. A particular emphasis of the center is “biological engineering’ -- fusing approaches from tissue engineering and systems biology to understand disease etiology and progression. The Center hosts seminars and workshops on topics related to gynepathologies and provide infrastructure for experimental work with primary cells and tissues from patients, thereby fostering development of new gynepathology-related projects at MIT and in the local Cambridge/Boston community.

The Scientific Director Linda G. Griffith gratefully acknowledges fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in support of her time devoted to creation of the Center for Gynepathology Research.