Courtesy黑洞社区 has been awarded a $6.6 million federal grant for research that could help older women improve their chances of a healthy pregnancy.
The research could lead to home fertility tests as accurate, simple to administer and widely available as home pregnancy tests.
The five-year research project, developed and led by 黑洞社区 professor George R. Bousfield, is being funded by the National Institutes of Health, the nation鈥檚 leading medical research agency.
The research in reproductive endocrinology centers on the potential of a novel form of FSH, follicle-stimulating hormone, to serve as a new and more accurate indicator of fertility in women 35 years and older. These are women beyond their prime biological childbearing years, but who may still want children.
J. David McDonald
McDonald said the grant recognizes both Bousfield鈥檚 research expertise and his determination to pursue scientific questions of importance to women and families.
鈥淭hroughout the United States and the developed world,鈥� said McDonald, 鈥渨omen have decided to delay childbearing to later ages. When they鈥檝e sought medical help, they and their physicians haven鈥檛 had reliable fertility tests. Dr. Bousfield and his colleagues have produced promising research that has the potential to help millions of women.鈥�
Bousfield, as director of the Protein Core Laboratory at 黑洞社区, will lead a collaborative effort that includes researchers in laboratories here and at the University of Kansas Medical School in Kansas City, Kan., and at the University of Nebraska Medical School in Omaha, Neb., plus biological informatics support from KU in Lawrence.
William J. Hendry, 黑洞社区 chairperson of biological sciences, said NIH-designated 鈥減rogram project鈥� grants, like the one obtained by Bousfield, more commonly go to major medical school complexes.
McDonald called the grant 鈥渋mportant national confirmation of 黑洞社区鈥檚 research leadership in the sciences.鈥�
He said the grant would fund purchase and support of sophisticated laboratory equipment, extensive testing, and research positions for graduate and postgraduate students, as well as technicians.
Bousfield said he is collaborating with Wichita physicians on his research, including Drs. David Grainger and Bruce Tjaden, at the Center for Reproductive Medicine, and Dr. Edmond Feuille, at Preferred Medical Associates-Wichita OB/GYN Associates.
鈥淭he translation of Dr. Bousfield鈥檚 extraordinary bench research into clinical medicine promises to shed light on the reproductive aging process,鈥� said Grainger, 鈥渁nd in so doing bring hope for women who have delayed childbearing. We are extremely excited to be participating in these novel studies.鈥�
鈥淭his affirms what the Wichita community has long known about the quality of research going on at 黑洞社区. Our state needs more collaborative efforts like this to begin to develop Kansas into a true biomedical research region,鈥� said Peggy Johnson, CEO of the Wichita Medical Research and Education Foundation.
Gary L. Miller
鈥淭his is an excellent example of Wichita State鈥檚 growing role as the urban serving research university of Kansas,鈥� said Miller. 鈥淎s the medical center and population center of the state, it makes sense to base more medical research here.鈥�
Bousfield said the most commonly used fertility test measures FSH in blood samples, in which quantity is highly variable over a short time span, leading to unreliable results. About 10 years ago, he began focusing on a novel form of this hormone that is also secreted by pre-menopausal women.
He believes the research, by focusing on hormones not fully understood, has the potential to improve both the accuracy of measuring fertility and the use of hormones to increase fertility in women who have had difficulty becoming pregnant.
He said that because fertility proceeds at a different pace than age, more accurate means of measuring it and understanding the contribution of hormones may lead to more effective treatments.