Associate Professor Leslie V. Farland

Leslie V. Farland, ScD, is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. She has training in biology (AB; University of Chicago) and reproductive epidemiology (MSc, ScD; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health). Prior to joining the faculty at UofA, she was an Instructor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School and served as the Director of Epidemiologic Research at the Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Her research program focuses broadly on gynecologic and reproductive health and can be categorized into four major themes: i) endometriosis and risk of comorbid chronic conditions, ii) etiology and risk factors for endometriosis, infertility, and polycystic ovary syndrome, iii) environmental and occupational risk factors for reproductive health, iv) disparities in access to reproductive health care. She has published over 100 scientific articles on women’s health, with over 40 focused on endometriosis.

Professor Martin Gotte

Martin Götte is a Professor for Medical Biochemistry and Head of the Unit for Experimental Endometriosis Research at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University of Münster, Germany. His main areas of research cover various aspects of reproductive biology and gynaecological oncology, focussing on the molecular mechanisms of endometriosis, exploring the role of adult stem cells and microRNAs in the pathogenic process. Methodological approaches include histopathological biomarker studies, the use of knockout mouse diseases models, patient-derived primary cells and cell lines, which are investigated using a broad range of cell biological, biochemical and molecular biological techniques. Prof. Götte was basic science officer of the ESHRE SIG for endometriosis and endometrial disorders (2019-2024), he is chairman of the board of the Reproductive medicine section of the German Endocrine Society, board member of the German Endometriosis Research Foundation SEF and secretary of the German Society for Matrix Biology. Prof. Götte is coordinator of a multinational EU H2020 project, TRENDO, and past coordinator of MOMENDO which eludicate molecular mechanisms of endometriosis, and two oncological EU projects, GLYCANC and HEPINIB. Prof. Götte has authored ~220 publications in peer-reviewed journals and his work has been cited more than 11.000 times (h-index=53) (SCOPUS).

Dr Erin Greaves

Dr Greaves is an MRC Career Development Award Fellow and Principal Investigator and assistant professor with 12 years experience in reproductive health research. She has more than 10 published original research articles (8 in the field of endometriosis and endometrium). Dr Greaves pioneered the development of a unique mouse model of endometriosis and has implemented a number of innovative in vitro systems. She won the David Healy Award at the 13th World Congress on Endometriosis (2017) and a New Investigator Award at the 62nd SRI Annual Conference (2015). She has delivered invited lectures at national/international conferences as well as seminars at universities and networking events.

Professor Sun Wei Guo

Professor Guo received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1991. He was Assistant and then Associate Research Scientist at University of Michigan, Associate Professor at University of Minnesota, and tenured full Professor at Medical College of Wisconsin. After serving a three-year term directorship at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he has been a Professor at Shanghai OB/GYN Hospital, Fudan University since 2010. He is also an adjunct professor at Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. He served as an Associate Editor for Human Reproduction Update, Human Reproduction and a few other journals, and is currently the co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Endometriosis and Uterine Disorders (JEUD). He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Endometriosis Society (WES) and of the board member of the Society of Endometriosis and Uterine Disorders (SEUD). Currently, he serves as a member of Board member of the Asian Society of Endometriosis and Adenomyosis (ASEA), the Scientific Advisory Board of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, the Scientific Advisory Board of FimmCyte AG and of Heranova Pharmaceuticals, and the International Advisory Committee of Taiwan Endometriosis Society.

Dr Siew Lim

Siew Lim is a Senior Research Fellow and Accredited Practising Dietitian at Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University. Her research focuses on health equity and women's reproductive conditions including polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis. She was a recipient of the prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellowship (2018-2023). She collaborates extensively within Australia and internationally (US, Europe, Asia, Africa) across disciplines including information technology, health psychology, medical anthropology, precision medicine, endocrinology, obstetrics and gynaecology, exercise physiology, dietetics, health service improvement, linguistic and cultural studies, and public health to address the multidisciplinary problem of health inequity. She is a Chair of the American Diabetes Association/European Association for the Studies of Diabetes Precision Medicine in Diabetes Initiative Gestational Diabetes Prevention Working Group. Her work has been recognized through 18 national and international awards, >100 publications and competitive grants including NHMRC Partnership and Heart Foundation Vanguard grants. She is the Chair of Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity of the Nutrition Society of Australia. She is also the founder of the Cardiometabolic Health Implementation Research for Postpartum women (CHIRP) consumer group with >100 consumers worldwide.

Associate Professor Sarah Maheux-Lacroix

Dr. Sarah Maheux-Lacroix is Associate Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the Minimally Invasive Gynecology Fellowship at the CHU de Quebec –Laval University in Canada. She completed a master and PhD in epidemiology at Laval University and a fellowship in Minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at UNSW, in Sydney, Australia. Co-chair of the Canadian Women’s Health Investigators for Surgical Excellence and Research, she has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications, including several in high-impact journals, as well as clinical guidelines for organization such as AAGL, FIGO, and the SOGC. Her clinical practice and research focus on the surgical management of endometriosis and its diagnosis by advanced ultrasound.

Professor Charles Muteshi

Dr. Charles Muteshi graduated with Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Moi University School of Medicine in 2004 and Masters of Medicine in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from Aga Khan University (East Africa) in 2011. He then proceeded to the University of Oxford for Clinical Research Fellowship in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery in 2013. He attained his Subspecialist training certification in Reproductive Medicine from the British Fertility Society.

He became a consultant in Reproductive Medicine at Oxford Fertility Unit and continued as Fellow of the University of Oxford at Endometriosis CaRe.

Prof. Muteshi was appointed consultant in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Aga Khan University, Nairobi in 2018 a role he holds to date. Here he is involved in teaching trainees of Masters in Obstetrics and Gynaeology. In addition, he set up and runs the Endometriosis CaRe centre, the first multidisciplinary service in an academic centre in Kenya. The centre has been following up women for about five years and actively participates in research focused on endometriosis in low/ middle income countries.

Prof. Muteshi is a member of multiple local and international professional associations including ESHRE where he was a part of the guidelines development group on endometriosis 2021.

Dr Beck O’Hara

Dr Beck O’Hara is an experienced researcher having worked in chronic disease, health policy, psychosocial and health promotion research for more than 15 years across government and non-profit organisations, and universities. Her PhD focused on people’s experiences of managing endometriosis and the role of self-management. Dr O’Hara is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide. Her research focuses on improving endometriosis diagnosis and management through digital health technologies. 

Dr O’Hara is the Project Coordinator of the Australian Government-funded platform EndoZone, an evidence-based, co-created digital health informatics platform designed to empower and support people with endometriosis. She is a chief investigator on the IMAGENDO® project which aims to utilise Artificial Intelligence (AI) to combine the digital data from specialist endometriosis ultrasounds and magnetic resonance imaging scans to detect endometriosis. She is a member of the International Social SciencEs Endometriosis Network (SEEN) and the Australasian Interdisciplinary Researchers in Endometriosis (AIRE) network.

Prof Carla Tomassetti

Carla Tomassetti obtained her medical degree (summa cum laude - 2001), her specialization in obstetrics and gynaecology (2006) and her subspecialist degree in reproductive medicine (2008) at KU Leuven, Belgium. From then on, she has been working as a staff member of the Leuven University Fertility Center, while she obtained her PhD degree in Biomedical Sciences in October 2017 for her thesis entitled ‘Fertility in women with endometriosis: prognosis and treatment strategies’. In October 2018 she was appointed as assistant professor at KU Leuven, Faculty of Medicine, Unit Woman and Child (LEERM), as well as the clinical lead of the multidisciplinary endometriosis unit and the Leuven University Fertility Center. Her clinical and research fields of interest include: surgical and medical treatment of severe forms of endometriosis and pelvic pain, pathogenesis of endometriosis, diagnosis of endometriosis, reproductive endocrinology and medically assisted reproduction.

Assoc Professor Lawrenson

Dr Lawrenson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UT Health San Antonio (UTHSA), in San Antonio, Texas, USA. She is Co-Director for the Center for Inherited Oncogenesis at UTHSA and is also Associate Director for the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. Dr Lawrenson obtained her PhD in Human Genetics from University College London and performed postdoc research at the same institution and at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA. She spent 9 years on the faculty at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center before joining UTHSA in Spring 2024.

Dr. Lawrenson’s career has been dedicated to the study of unmet needs in women’s health. Her laboratory focuses on gene regulation in endometriosis and ovarian cancer – and the pathways linking these two diseases. The multidisciplinary and collaborative research in her laboratory brings together genomics and epidemiology to identify new translational opportunities. The team includes both wet-lab and dry-lab researchers focused on studying the interplay between the genome, the epigenome and the transcriptome using large-scale ChIP-seq, CUT&TAG/RUN, RNA-seq, spatial in situ and single cell ‘omics’ technologies. Recent work from the laboratory has been published in Nature Genetics and Cell Reports Medicine. Her research is funded by awards from the NIH, the Department of Defense and others.