My name is Dr. Susan L. Barrett and I am a basic scientist in the Woodruff Laboratory for the Oncofertility Consortium. I have a PhD in Development, Cellular and Molecular Biology, namely Reproduction as well as a MS in Tumor Biology. I am currently researching new frontiers in preserving fertility for women facing a cancer diagnosis. I will be blogging about basic reproductive biology, cell biology as well as cancer formation. I would like to give readers a better understanding of what is going on in their bodies at a cellular level. I will also discuss new, breakthrough publications in the world of oncofertility aswell as sharing exciting images and videos of our work. I am looking forward in sharing information with you as well as taking your comments and questions.

Hi everyone!

My name is Tara Kerpelman and I’m the Science and Medicine Writer for the Oncofertility Consortium. I work here part-time. The rest of the time I’m a graduate student at Medill – the journalism school at Northwestern – where I am specializing in science and health reporting and broadcast journalism.

I became interested in the Oncofertility department when Teresa spoke to my class as a guest lecturer. I was very impressed that she was so enthusiastic and obviously really cared about educating people on the topic of oncofertility.

To learn more about the subject, I shadowed different people in the lab over the course of a week so I could learn about what is done here, and now I am being given the chance to help spread the word about oncofertility.

So in the coming weeks you will see many more posts from me and I encourage you to comment on them!

-Tara-

Tyler Wellington

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My name is Tyler Wellington and I operate the histology core facility that serves Dr. Woodruff’s lab as well as many of the Oncofertility Consortium investigators.  Histology in the core is an involved process that takes ovarian and other tissues dissected from research animals and processes it first into microscope slides, and ultimately into digital images that researchers can use to determine everything from the size and shape as the tissue, to its composition, to the location of specific proteins and other important cellular components.  I’ll admit that the day-to-day of the histology core can, on occasion, become tedious.  I’m the one that, in stock footage of a laboratory on the local news, is in the background wearing a long white lab coat cutting thin sections of tissue for a slide or pipetting small volumes of liquid from one tube to another.  These small tasks, though, can never distract me from the big picture.

Reconciling and remedying the mental and health-related stresses of women facing diagnoses of cancer and infertility are enormous tasks charged to the Consortium, which means the daily tasks of the lab, however small, are always pieces of a larger and more important puzzle.  Good ideas, no matter how good, cannot work without good science.  Small changes on the laboratory bench can often lead to big changes in scientific ideas, and big changes is scientific ideas can lead to important changes in smaller stories.  Whether it’s the girl’s decision to become a doctor after attending OSA or the patient’s renewed hope for fertility after cancer treatment, small science, big ideas, and personal stories are always very connected in the Oncofertility Consortium.  I hope to use my space on this blog to look this, to examine the different ways in which science, ideas, and personal stories interact.  I feel privileged to have this opportunity and I look forward to any comments you might have.

Tyler W.

My name is Shauna Gardino and I am clinical research coordinator at the Oncofertility Consortium. I manage the portfolio of social science studies related to fertility preservation for cancer patients. There are five current social science initiatives that provide a vital perspective of the social implications and considerations associated with oncofertiltiy in the lived world, including:
• An examination of the ethical, legal and religious issues associated with emerging fertility preservation technologies, including issues such justice and access to treatment, consent and disclosure, international perspectives and prospective ethics.
• A willingness to pay assessment spearheaded by the Kellogg School of Economics to understand the economic value of oncofertility technologies
• A shared decision-making study aimed at developing, implementing, evaluating and disseminating a shared decision making model for family, patients and health care providers to use in deciding what to do about fertility issues when a young girl has been diagnosed with cancer
• An examination of how breast cancer patients navigate fertility concerns and treatment options, looking at how doctors and patients discuss the topic of infertility and possible treatment options and identifying facilitators and barriers to this exchange of information
• A quality of life study aiming to assess reproductive concerns and psychosocial functioning in cancer patients and to compare longitudinally the overall psychosocial functioning in cancer patients referred for fertility consultation and cancer patients not referred for fertility consultation.

Additional information related to the social science initiatives can be found on the Oncofertility Website:
http://oncofertility.northwestern.edu/research/social-science-and-oncofertility

I am also currently conducting an independent study on adoption agency attitudes and perspectives on the potential to parent for individuals with a history of cancer. I also assist with administrative duties at the Consortium and will be in charge of the Annual Oncofertility Consortium Conference this September 14-16th in Chicago, IL. The conference is an opportunity for researchers and clinicians to disseminate knowledge and share progress and ideas in the field of oncofertility, and a testament to our growing network and emerging field. Mark your calendars!

Looking forward to sharing this exciting research with all of you!!

Shauna

Jennifer Hirshfeld, MD

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Hi, my name is Dr. Jennifer Hirshfeld and I am an ob/gyne currently undergoing subspeciality training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility.  As part of this program, I have had the opportunity to work in Dr. Woodruff’s lab and learn about the emerging scientific discoveries regarding ovarian biology.  Oncofertility focuses on fertility preservation for cancer patients as treatments as well as the disease can affect one’s future fertility.  Yet, cancer is not unique in this way; other disease processes have treatments that also effect one’s future fertility.  I plan to focus this blog on coverage of some of those diseases with suggested articles and websites to learn more about this important topic.  It is very exciting to be apart of the oncofertility focused “blog-society”!  I look forward to your comments and suggestions.