Who are we?
It’s your UteRus,
it’s time to take it back from endometriosis
Our team is composed of twelve highly motivated students from all over the world and from a variety of biological and engineering disciplines. We are participating in iGEM, or the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, a synthetic biology competition where over 400 universities compete against each other to solve real-world problems through synthetic biology, engineering, and community effort.
Our team’s project for this year’s competition is to tackle the under-diagnosis of endometriosis by designing new, non-invasive diagnostic tests for use in medical settings. After discussing our project with many professionals in the medical and industrial fields, we realized the lack of awareness about female reproductive health in general and endometriosis in specific.The repetitive mentions of the importance of education prompted our team to create what we have today as Endo Eductaion.
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We are UoR iGEM
Emily Schiller
While working on this project, Emily was amazed at how the biological and physiological processes she learned in her courses can be implicated in the progression of diseases such as endometriosis. She also learned that although endometriosis has a complex pathophysiology, it is the lack of awareness and research into the disease that is preventing patients from receiving effective diagnostics and therapeutics.
She enjoyed speaking to different communities effected by endometriosis and learning about the disease from their perspectives. Between talking to gynecologists, researchers, patients, and advocates, she developed a well-rounded understanding of the interconnected and integral role medicine and society play in increasing resources for endometriosis patients.
Major:Cell and Developmental Biology
Favorite Endometriosis Fact: "No-one is too young to have endometriosis. About 70% of women with endometriosis start experiencing symptoms before they are 20 years old."
Heather Shi
Heather decided to be part and lead the endo edu project after learning the health disparity and stigma around endometriosis. Through talking to the specialist, foundations and organizations, Heather was amazed to see the global effort people have put to tackle endometriosis, through innovative research method, to increase general awareness. Heather hopes that the educational material created by UR iGEM team could be a positive contribution to the community.
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Major:Microbiology
Favorite Endometriosis Fact:
It is reassuring to see that there is an increasing awareness about endometriosis in the medical field, physicians, and the general community. For patients who are suffering from endometriosis, or endometriosis-like symptoms, do not give up, there are right resources and communities that support and help you.
Nello Gu
Nello learnt about how women are misunderstood in the process of the diagnosis of endometriosis. They are thought to be exaggerating their pains when describing the symptoms. This has been a big factor delaying their endometriosis diagnosis.
He enjoyed the most while talking to the stakeholders and learning that people think the project is important and could help the world.
Nello started working on this project because he wanted to apply biomedicsal engineering in the real world
Major:Biomedical Engineering
Favorite Endometriosis Fact: "While endometriosis is a physical disease, the lasting symptoms and distress can be impactful emotional. About 30% of endometriosis patients have moderate to severe anxiety. This is an impact of the disease, not a cause."
James Tang
James chose to work on this project because endometriosis is affecting a large population. It is a great opportunity to use iGEM’s impact to raise people’s awareness about the disease.
James enjoyed talking to experts in the field and learning how to increase people’s awareness of endometriosis.
What he learnt the most through this experience is that to solve a global challenge like this, community effort is necessary.
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Major:Cell and Developmental Biology; Economics
Favorite Endometriosis Fact: “Endometriosis affects ~2-5% of postmenopausal women. While you cannot get endometriosis after menopause, you can experience it’s residual effects”
Zivile Vebrait
One of the most important concepts that Zivile learnt by being part of the Endometriosis Education Project was that endometriosis is not limited to women. Discussing endometriosis prevalence with Heather Guidone, Surgical Program Director for the Center for Endometriosis Care, has made her realize that it is important to emphasize inclusivity in our project. This is because endometriosis community is composed on women and transgender individuals. Thus, Zivile learnt that in order to make sure that our project reaches endometriosis patients, she needs to take into account a more specified population of patients than she initially expected.
Major:Cell and Developmental Biology
Favorite Endometriosis Fact:"There are many support groups for endometriosis to offer comfort, encouragement, and exchange of information and advice."
Meghan Martin
Meghan's experience is what drives her passion to work on this project. To her,It was inspiring to learn how often endometriosis patients advocate for themselves and find doctors that will listen to them. She enjoyed talking to professionals in the field about their perspectives on the latest research and treatment options. It was a good opportunity to learn how the research and information is brought to life in a real world setting
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Major:American Sign Language and Biochemistry
Favorite Endometriosis Fact: "No-one is too young to have endometriosis. About 70% of women with endometriosis start experiencing symptoms before they are 20 years old"
Linh Hoang
Linh learnt that endometriosis causes heavy bleeding and painful periods.
While working on the project Linh enjoyed running simulations for the different modeling projects.
Linh chose to work on this project because she wanted to try coming up and going through with a project all by herself.
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Major:Biomedical Engineering
Favorite Endometriosis Fact: There's a 7-10 year delay between endometriosis onset and diagnosis
Helen Shammas
The most important part Helen learnt about endometriosis is how even when endometriosis causes very heavy bleeding and very painful periods physicians still brush it off even with how common it is. Helen enjoyed exploring the different possibilities of how hardware could be used to improve the experience of the patient and complimenting the efforts from the synthetic biology perspective.
Helen joined this program because she wanted to apply her engineering knowledge to a real world problem.
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Major:Biomedical Engineering
Favorite Endometriosis Fact:"March is endometriosis awareness month. Some ways to spread awareness about endometriosis during March (and the rest of the year) is to talk about it, join an event, educate yourself, or share your story."
Ethan Chen
Ethan learned that endometriosis is a disease that affects so many females, but it still hasn't earned enough attention to it. During this project, he had a better understanding of endometriosis and believe we should let more people be aware of this disease. He enjoyed the building hardware and using what he learned in class to contribute to the project.
Major:Biomedical Engineering
Favorite Endometriosis Fact: "No-one is too young to have endometriosis. About 70% of women with endometriosis start experiencing symptoms before they are 20 years old."
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Biomedical Engineering
Emily Laskey
The lack of knowledge and awareness surrounding endometriosis exacerbates the gender gap in healthcare and worsens patient-physician relationships. Emily thinks this is an extremely important issue to address so patients feel heard by their healthcare providers. Emily loved working together with the team to learn about all the approaches to solving a global problem (how to use modeling, create devices, and address ethical concerns)
Major: Biochemistry and Psychology
Favorite Endometriosis Fact: There are some passionate researchers working on creating noninvasive diagnostic methods and therapeutic options (the ROSE Group and Dr. Flores were amazing consultants on our project)
Isabelle Lopez
Our endometriosis focused project has truly embodied the message about how “knowledge is power” -Francis Bacon. Isabelle was part of the unaware community, part of the majority of our population who have no idea what endometriosis is nor how prevalent and common it can be in women. Isabelle have not only enjoyed uncovering new facts and information about endometriosis but, she have also loved the journey me and my team have taken to share it with the rest of the community. One of the main reasons why she personally decided to work on this project was my curiosity for the unknown, of having absolutely no clue of what was endometriosis.
Major:Biochemistry
Favorite Endometriosis Fact: "only 20% of the general public have heard about endometriosis"
Gabe Issacson
The most important thing Gabe has learned on this project has been the huge disparity between how common endometriosis is, and the general awareness of it. When he first started this project, he had never heard of it, but as he started talking about it with friends and family, he have found so many people in my community that have or have had endometriosis.
Gabe enjoyed the opportunities to meet with and talk with experts that have spent years and years researching and advocating for endometriosis. He gained so much wisdom and advice from them, and had the unique experience to hear the real impact of the kind of work we are doing
Major:Microbiology
Favorite Endometriosis Fact:"The annual healthcare cost burden of endometriosis in the US is estimated to be over $22 billion"