Diana Monsivais
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Endometriosis affects roughly one in ten women aged 15 to 45. In this disease, tissue like the uterine lining grows outside the uterus, causing chronic pelvic pain and infertility.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Pharmacology
Biology
- Topics
endometriosis
endometrium
endometrial stem cells
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2027
What they work on
- Define how retinoic acid production by ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 controls stem cell regeneration and maturation in the endometrium, using new creERT2-tdTomato reporter mice for lineage tracing and transcriptomic studies in endometrial organoids.
- Test whether blocking BMPR2, a BMP receptor overproduced in lesions, with newly developed kinase inhibitors reduces endometriosis in cells, 3D organoids and a mouse model of the disease.
- Optimize the binding strength and cell permeability of JNK inhibitors selected from DNA-encoded chemistry libraries of over 4 billion compounds, and test them in cell lines and primary human endometrial stromal cells.
- Compare new JNK inhibitors with tanzisertib in a mouse model that overexpresses estrogen receptor beta in the endometrium, a model of inflammation-driven endometriosis with reduced progesterone response.
- Test whether cytokine release from macrophages and NK cells in menstrual fluid can sort patients by their likely response to JNK inhibitor therapy.
More about the research
Current drugs mostly suppress estrogen, and they cannot be used continuously. Two connected projects tackle the disease from different directions. One asks how stem cells let the uterine lining, the endometrium, regrow hundreds of times over a lifetime, and whether that regrowth machinery drives endometriosis lesions. The other aims to develop non-hormonal drugs that make lesions shrink.
Why it matters
Women with endometriosis face chronic pelvic pain and infertility, and today's estrogen-suppressing drugs cannot be taken without breaks. This work could yield non-hormonal treatment options, such as BMPR2 and JNK inhibitors, for use alone or between hormone courses. A menstrual-fluid test might help match patients to these therapies. Identifying endometrial stem cell markers may also clarify how lesions keep regrowing.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jisun Paik
University of Washington, WA·Pharmacology
Test whether N42, a newly developed selective inhibitor of the retinoic acid-making enzyme ALDH1A1, suppresses weight gain in obese mice kept on a high-fat diet and accelerates weight loss in obese mice given reduced calories.
James Pru
University of Wyoming, WY·Physiology
Measure PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 levels across the lifespan in 12 major mouse organs that regulate healthspan, to test whether these proteins can serve as markers of fertility and overall health.
Anna Pollack
George Mason University, VA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether higher levels of PFASs, POPs and their mixtures in healthy uterine (eutopic endometrial) tissue are associated with new endometriosis diagnoses among 495 women in the ENDO Study operative cohort.
The school
Baylor College of Medicine: 38 labs on PI Pages, $881M a year on research, 115 research doctorates a year.
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