WES Vice President, Professor Linda Giudice, has spent much of the last two decades studying the human endometrium, including normal and abnormal aspects of endometrial development and the relevance of that development to miscarriage, implantation disorders, foetal growth, and endometriosis.

Her considerable contributions to the field of reproductive medicine were recognised at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, when she was presented with their 2008 Distinguished Researcher Award.

"I am deeply honoured to be the recipient of this award, and to be honoured by the reproductive medicine community", said Professor Giudice. "This award occours at an auspicious time in science and medicine, especially with translational research, and receiving this is very special".

Not only does the award acknowledge Professor Giudice's contributions, it also acknowledges the efforts of numerous colleagues and trainees who have been part of her research team and its accomplishments, she said.

Professor Giudice, the Robert B Jaffe Endowed Professor and Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, is a biochemist, gynaecologist, and reproductive endocrinologist specialising in endometriosis, infertility, assisted reproduction, implantation, and ovulatory disorders. She also has an interest in reproductive infectious diseases.

Some of her recent research has focused on environmental effects of reproductive health and has fostered research in the area of effects of environmental toxins on reproductive tissue - a topic covered at the 64th Annual Meeting of the ASRM. She has also investigated human embryonic stem cell differentiation to the trophectoderm, endometrium as a mucosal tissue, placental-uterine interactions, and function genomics of human reproductive tissues. Her research has led to greater understanding of the role of steroid hormones, particularly progesterone, in infertility and the development of endometriosis. Her functional genomic studies in the endometrium of women with endometriosis have paved the way for improved diagnostics and biomarkers for endometriosis and new avenues for targeted therapeutics for endometriosis-related infertility, and they could lead to the development of more effective therapies for endometriosis-related pelvic pain.

"As a classic physican-scientist, whose long career of very productive research has advanced the field of reproductive medicine and biology, Professor Giudice is a very deserving recipient of the Distinguished Researcher Award", said Andrew La Barbera PhD HCLD, ASRM's Scientific Director. "She is unusual in that she does both basic and clinical research. She has made significant contributions to the understanding of signal transduction in ovarian and uterine cells", he said, citing her three decades of productive research and her ongoing success in advancing understanding of signal transduction and communication among cells within reproductive tissues as the basis for her selection as the recipient of this prestigius award, which was designed to recognise meritorious research within the previous decade.

Among Professor Giudice's recently published works are:

• Molecular phenotyping of human endometrium distinguishes menstrual cycle phases and underlying biological processes in normo-ovulatory women (Endocrinology 2006;147:1097-1121)
• Gene expression analysis of endometrium reveals progesterone resistance and candidate susceptability genes in women with endometriosis (Endocrinology 2007;148:3814-26)

WES vice president Linda Giudice appointed to the NIH Advisory Committee on Research on Women's Health

 WES board member Robert Taylor honoured with ASRM 2007 Distinguished Researcher Award

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