Principal Investigator Linda Griffith
Co-investigators Yoel Fink , M Kaashoek , John Guttag , Moungi Bawendi , Frank Gertler , Paula Hammond , Anette Hosoi , Barbara Imperiali , Douglas Lauffenburger , Katharina Ribbeck , Alexander Slocum , W David Lee , Jongyoon Han , Paul Blainey
Project Website http://web.mit.edu/cgr/index.html
Project Start Date November 2009
The Center for Gynepathology Research, launched in the fall of 2009, brings 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. Research in the Center leverages all facets of engineering, with an emphasis on “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. Current clinical studies are directed at understanding origins and progression of several diseases, and involve patients who are undergoing surgery or other treatments for gynecological problems or infertility at Newton Wellesley Hospital or in the practices of clinical collaborators in Norway, Brazil, Singapore and at Tufts University.
Co-directed by an MIT engineer and a Harvard Medical School clinician, the Center for Gynepathology Research brings together over 15 laboratories and clinical practices in the Boston area and around the world to foster both basic and clinical research in endometriosis, infertility, pre-term birth, sexually-transmitted disease, and other pathologies of the female reproductive tract.
The Center is developing a secure, portable software application to aid clinical management of endometriosis patients both pre- and post-surgically, and to collect more highly stratified information about patient symptoms and surgical findings.
The CGR maintains a primary cell bank of endometrial cells from patients and controls and routinely collects primary tissue for in vitro studies of normal and diseased cell behavior. The CGR researchers have developed new protocols for collection of peritoneal fluid for detailed molecular analysis and train other research teams in these protocols, which augment other published standard protocols. The CGR has a Luminex immunobead facility for multiplex analysis of cytokines and other biomolecules. The CGR core lab routinely carries out live cell imaging assays and quantitative cell migration studies and shared protocols and approaches.