Ambassador

NOTHNICK Warrren

University of Kansas
Kansas City, USA

Professor, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Kansas Medical Center, USA

Warren B Nothnick PhD HCLD graduated from the Ohio State University with his Bachelor of Science in 1987, and his Master of Science in 1989.  He did his post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Kentucky and completed his PhD there in 1994.

Research in Professor Nothnick’s laboratory focuses on deciphering the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the pathophysiology of endometriosis and the potential of targeting these miRNAs and/or their target transcripts as potential therapies for endometriosis treatment.  miRNAs have emerged as critical post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that are fundamental for development and function of many organ systems.  Work from Professor Nothnick’s laboratory as well as that from others have shown that miRNAs are mis-expressed in endometriosis and may modulate physiological pathways relevant to endometriotic lesion survival.  Emphasis is placed upon dissecting these miRNA-mediated pathways utilizing both in vitro and in vivo models.  Secondary interests focus on the regulation and function of microRNAs in the decidualization process and endometrial infertility associated with endometriosis and progesterone resistance.

Recent endometriosis publications (from a total of 57 publications) include:

1. Nothnick WB, Falcone T, Joshi N, Fazleabas AT, Graham A. (2017) Serum miR-451a levels are significantly elevated in women with endometriosis and recapitulated in baboons (Papio anubis) with experimentally-induced disease. Reprod Sci. 24:1195-1202.
2. Nothnick, WB. (2016) Non-coding RNAs in uterine development, function and disease.  Adv Exp Med Biol. 886:171-186.
3. Graham A, Holbert J, Nothnick WB (2017) miR-181b-5p modulation of TIMP-3 expression during in vitro decidualization of a human endometrial stromal cell line and identification of miR-181b-5p targets by differential in-gel analysis. Reprod Sci. 24: 1264-1274.
4. Nothnick WB (2017) MicroRNAs and endometriosis:  distinguishing drivers from passengers in disease pathogenesis.  Sem Reprod Med. 35: 173 – 180.
5. Nothnick WB, Falcone T, Fazleabas AT, Olsen M, Tawfik OW, Graham A. (2018) Macrophage migration inhibitory factor receptor, CD74, is over-expressed in human and baboon (Papio Anubis) endometriotic lesions and modulates endometriotic epithelial cell survival and interleukin-8 expression. Reprod Sci (doi: 10.1177/1933719118766262).

Professor Nothnick has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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Ambassador

HULL Louise

University of Adelaide
Adelaide, Australia

Associate Professor, The Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Australia

Associate Professor M. Louise Hull is a gynaecologist and reproductive medicine specialist with a biomedical science background who has worked in Christchurch, New Zealand, Cambridge, UK and Adelaide, Australia.  She undertook a PhD in Endometriosis at Cambridge University and now leads the Endometriosis Research Group at the Robinson Research Institute (www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/louise.hull).  She advocates strongly for women with endometriosis in the media (@MLouiseHull), at international, national and local conferences and by advancing our knowledge of endometriosis by publishing scientific papers.

Her team were one of the first to explore the transcriptome and its regulation by microRNAs using global expression platforms. She has developed unique mouse models of endometriosis to explore the basic biology of endometriosis. After undertaking the first series of Diagnostic Test Accuracy Cochrane reviews for endometriosis, her group continues to explore the role of microRNAs, cytokines and environmental factors as risk factors, diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic tools for endometriosis.  Assoc. Prof Hull has also undertaken clinical trials for Pharma, has participated in international consensus groups for the World Endometriosis Society and was invited to the round table to develop the Australian National Action Plan for Endometriosis. She was an Associate Editor for Human Reproduction and is an International Ambassador for the World Endometriosis Society.

Associate Professor Hull has a clinical practice, seeing adolescents and adults with endometriosis and fertility problems, at Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide and in private practice at O& G, North Adelaide.  She co-founded the FertilitySA IVF unit and was their scientific and new developments director from 2009-2018. She supervises honours and PhD students, medical students and fellows, chairs the AGES grant committee, co-ordinates the written exam for the RANZCOG reproductive medicine subspecialty exams (CREI) and sits on the board of two companies.

Professor Hull has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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Ambassador

GORDTS Stephan

Leuven Institute for Fertility and Embryology
Leuven, Belgium

Head and Scientific Director, Leuven Institute for Fertility and Embryology, Leuven Belgium

Professor Gordts graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1978. He performed two years of experimental work and training in microsurgery. Since 1978 his main clinical interest and his full career has been devoted to reproductive medicine.

He is an expert in microsurgical interventions and operative laparoscopies. In 1982 he followed a postgraduate training in ART at the Monash University, Melbourne, and as the clinician in charge of the IVF programme he was closely involved in the birth of the first IVF baby in Belgium, born in May 1983.

In 1984 Professor Gordts founded the “Leuven Institute for Fertility & Embryology (L.I.F.E.)” of which he remains head and scientific director. From 1992 –1995 he was associate professor at the department of Gynaecology of the UCL (Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels) where he was director of the IVF unit. He introduced in 1998 the new technique of the transvaginal laparoscopy and the concept of the one stop fertility clinic.

He is a member of different fertility societies, and was the past-coordinator of the special interest group on reproductive surgery in ESHRE. Within the ESGE he is the coordinator of the SIG for reproductive surgery and also for the task force on uterine congenital malformations (CONUTA) (collaboration ESHRE and ESGE).

Awards: 1998 the Basic science award ASRM/IFFS for his video on “Transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy: Visualisation of oocyte release and fimbrial pick-up”

He is a reviewer of several international journals and has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals.

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Ambassador

GARCIA-VELASCO Juan

IVI Madrid
Madrid, Spain

Director of IVI Madrid, Spain. Director of the Master Degree in Human Reproduction, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain. Director of the Post-graduate course in Nursing in Human Reproduction, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain. Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain

Doctor Juan Antonio García Velasco graduated from Madrid University School of Medicine in 1990 and received his OBGYN certification from Autonoma University – Hospital La Paz in 1995. From 1997 to 1998 he studied at Yale University under a Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship.

Dr Garcia Velasco’s main interest has been IVF and endometriosis. He has been invited to speak at several Societies (European Society for Human reproduction courses, American Society for Reproductive Medicine Spanish Fertility Society, Columbia Fertility Society, Mediterranean Society) and is part of the ESHRE publications committee and ESHRE Advisory Board, as well as referee for several journals (Lancet, Human Reproduction, Fertility and Sterility, American Journal Reproduction, J Assisted Reproduction, and Genetics) and a member of the panel of assessors for Continuing Medical Education Activities of SEGO.

He has received the Research Award of the Spanish Fertility Society and the Award of the Spanish Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Dr Garcia Velasco has published over 100 articles in scientific journals, more than 22 book chapters, published four books as editor, and lectured in most reproductive medicine conferences around the world.

Dr Garcia Velasco has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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Ambassador

FAZLEABAS Asgi

Michigan State University
Grand Rapids, USA

University Distinguished Professor and MSU Foundation Professor, Obstetrics Gynaecology and Reproductive Biology, Michigan State University, USA. Director, Women’s Health Research, Michigan State University, USA. Co-Director, Reproductive and Developmental Sciences Programme, Michigan State University, USA

The laboratory of Professor Fazleabas utilises a baboon model for endometriosis in which the disease can be induced by inoculating the peritoneal cavity with autologous menstrual tissue. This permits us to study the etiology and pathophysiology of endometriosis from the onset of the disease and during its continued progression.

These studies have identified the progressive changes in gene expression in the eutopic endometrium which is a direct consequence of the presence of lesions. These changes are similar to that reported in women with disease and demonstrate that the development of progesterone resistance is a progressive process and may be related to epigenetic changes that are initiated during the initial establishment of the disease.

The kinetics of lesion development is also a progressive event following the induction of the disease and is governed by the up regulation genes that are involved in the process of angiogenesis and cell adhesion. The latter stages of lesion development are also associated with the presence of nerve fibers. Current studies are focused on the mechanisms by which microRNAs and their respective target genes regulate cell proliferation, apoptosis and inflammation which may contribute to the development of the disease and epigenetic changes in the eutopic endometrium that contributes to endometriosis associated infertility.

The unique nature of the primate model to study endometriosis and the strong multi-disciplinary collaborative group which we have established has led to important and fundamental findings regarding the causative effects of endometriosis and the mechanisms by which aberrant gene expression in the eutopic endometrium may contribute to infertility.

Professor Fazleabas has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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Ambassador

CARMONA Francisco

University of Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain

Professor, University of Barcelona, Spain. Chief of Gynecology, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain

Francisco Carmona was born and raised in Spain, where he graduated from the University of Barcelona Faculty of Medicine in 1982. He became a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology in Spain and obtained his doctoral degree in 1991. His main area of interest is endometriosis and benign gynaecological diseases.

He has published more than 100 scientific papers in peer review journals, more than 15 book chapters, and is scientific reviewer for several scientific journals including Human Reproduction, Fertility and Sterilty, and many others. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Gynecological Surgery.

Professor Carmona has been member of the Board Committee of the European Society for Gynecologic Endoscopy and was the president of the 19th Congress of that Society. Currently he is member of the Executive Committee of the Sociedad Ibero-Americana de Endoscopia Ginecológica e Imagenología, and a member of the Advisory Committee of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopy.

Professor Carmona has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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Ambassador

FORMAN Axel

Aarhus University Hospital
Aarhus, Denmark

Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark

Professor Forman graduated in 1978 and defended his DMSci thesis in1984 at Aarhus University, Denmark. He achieved his clinical training at Malmö General Hospital, Sweden, and Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. He was appointed as consultant and associate professor in 1994 and full professor 2008 in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aarhus University Hospital.

He founded the referral unit for advanced endometriosis therapy, Aarhus 1997, with appointment by the Danish National Board of Health 2001. He is WES ambassador and member of the WES consensus group. Board memberships include the Danish Endometriosis Patients Society, the Minimally Invasive Education Centre, the Educational Region North, Denmark and the International Society of Neuropelveology.

Professor Forman is co-editor and contributor to several textbooks in gynaecology. Scientific areas of interest include basic and clinical research on endometriosis, neuropelveology and neurorehabilitation, and clinical pharmacology of the urogenital tract. See http://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/axel-forman(7f254ab6-fc56-4480-87a8-36c73b4cf5d5).html for further details.

Professor Forman has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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