Teresa K. Woodruff is an American medical researcher in
human reproduction and
oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...
, with a focus on ovarian biology, endocrinology, and women's health. She joined
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
as the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs in August 2020. Woodruff became the interim President of
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
on November 4, 2022 after the resignation of
Samuel L. Stanley
Samuel L. Stanley Jr. (born January 11, 1954) is an American educator and biomedical researcher. He was the President of Michigan State University from 2019 until November 2022, and he was the President of Stony Brook University from 2009 t ...
. She was previously the Thomas J. Watkins Memorial Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Chief of the Division of Reproductive Science in Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the
Feinberg School of Medicine at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
. Woodruff was Dean of the Graduate School and Professor in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University in
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...
as well.
She is credited with coining the term ''
oncofertility'' and founded the
Oncofertility Consortium at
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is a nationally ranked academic medical center located on Northwestern University’s Chicago campus in Streeterville, Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship campus for Northwestern Medicine and the primary ...
. She is also founder and chief of the Division of Fertility Preservation and founder and director of the Women's Health Research Institute at Northwestern University.
Education
Woodruff graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology and Chemistry from the
Olivet Nazarene University in 1985. She was awarded the "O" Award in 2016, presented "to honor alumni who exhibit the characteristics and ideals of their alma mater." She completed her graduate study at Northwestern University, receiving a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Cell Biology in 1989.
Career
Ovarian biology research
In 1986, as a graduate student in the laboratory of Kelly Mayo at Northwestern University, Woodruff cloned the protein subunits that form the peptide hormones
inhibin and activin. This work was recognized in 2000 by the Endocrine Society Weitzman Award, which is presented to "an exceptionally promising young clinical or basic investigator who has not reached the age of 50." After completing her doctorate in 1989, Woodruff completed a postdoctoral fellowship at
Genentech, Inc in South San Francisco, CA, where she contributed to the development of inhibin and activin assays, which are used today for the diagnosis of
Down syndrome
Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual dis ...
and to measure the
ovarian reserve Ovarian reserve is a term that is used to determine the capacity of the ovary to provide egg cells that are capable of fertilization resulting in a healthy and successful pregnancy. With advanced maternal age the number of egg cell that can be succe ...
. She is named as inventor on five patents based on her work at Genentech. Woodruff also continued her research into the physiology of inhibin and activin in pituitary and ovarian function in rodent and the effects of recombinant human inhibin and activin in primates.
Woodruff returned to Northwestern University as a faculty member in 1995 to study inhibin and activin actions and interactions within the pituitary-gonadal axis, characterizing the regulation of subunit assembly and ligand processing in the ovary, the ligands’ role in
paracrine Paracrine signaling is a form of cell signaling, a type of cellular communication in which a cell produces a signal to induce changes in nearby cells, altering the behaviour of those cells. Signaling molecules known as paracrine factors diffuse ove ...
regulation of
folliculogenesis, and their
signal transduction
Signal transduction is the process by which a chemical or physical signal is transmitted through a cell as a series of molecular events, most commonly protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinases, which ultimately results in a cellula ...
pathways in the regulation of
follicle-stimulating hormone
Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is a gonadotropin, a glycoprotein polypeptide hormone. FSH is synthesized and secreted by the gonadotropic cells of the anterior pituitary gland and regulates the development, growth, pubertal maturation, an ...
(FSH). In collaboration with Theodore Jardetzky, she solved the crystal structures of activin with its receptor and with its bioneutralizing binding protein
follistatin
Follistatin also known as activin-binding protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''FST'' gene. Follistatin is an autocrine glycoprotein that is expressed in nearly all tissues of higher animals.
Its primary function is the binding ...
. In 2015, her lab used ''in silico'' methods to design small molecule activin antagonists based on the structure of activin bound to its receptor.
Using single-cell elemental analytical methods at the
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is a science and engineering research United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory operated by University of Chicago, UChicago Argonne LLC for the United States Department of Energy. The facil ...
in collaboration with inorganic chemist Tom O’Halloran, Woodruff discovered a role of
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
in the regulation of
oocyte
An oocyte (, ), oöcyte, or ovocyte is a female gametocyte or germ cell involved in reproduction. In other words, it is an immature ovum, or egg cell. An oocyte is produced in a female fetus in the ovary during female gametogenesis. The female ...
maturation and at the moment of
fertilization
Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a new individual organism or offspring and initiate its development. Proce ...
. Using single-cell
x-ray fluorescence, Woodruff and O’Halloran described the phenomenon of the "zinc spark," an event during which 10 billion zinc ions are lost from the egg. The discovery of the zinc spark was named as one of ''Discove''r magazine's top 100 stories of 2016.
Oncofertility research
At Northwestern University, Woodruff led a highly collaborative effort that resulted in the development of a
hydrogel
A hydrogel is a crosslinked hydrophilic polymer that does not dissolve in water. They are highly absorbent yet maintain well defined structures. These properties underpin several applications, especially in the biomedical area. Many hydrogels ar ...
that acts as a 3-dimensional support system for encapsulated in vitro culture of the
ovarian follicle
An ovarian follicle is a roughly spheroid cellular aggregation set found in the ovaries. It secretes hormones that influence stages of the menstrual cycle. At the time of puberty, women have approximately 200,000 to 300,000 follicles, each with th ...
and its enclosed maturing oocyte (eIVFG). Live births in mice resulted from these studies, and this work was named as he most important breakthrough of the decade 1998-2008 by ''Nature Medicine''. eIVFG methods were subsequently used to develop and test a microfluidic system that supports 28-day reproductive cycles ''ex vivo''—an "ovarian cycle in a dish." On March 28, 2017, her team announced the creation of Evatar, a miniaturized
female reproductive tract
The female reproductive system is made up of the internal and external sex organs that function in the reproduction of new offspring. In humans, the female reproductive system is immature at birth and develops to maturity at puberty to be able ...
composed of ovarian follicles or intact ovaries (mouse) interconnected with human explants from fallopian tubes, uterus, and cervix with liver organoids to provide a metabolic management tissue system. Woodruff and team also recently created decellularized and 3D-printed ovarian bioprosthetics as replacement organs for women who have lost gonadal function. The development of an ovarian bioprosthetic was named as one of ''Discover'' magazine's 100 most important discoveries of 2018, and was recognized as a top five medical breakthrough by the Chinese Academy of Science. Her work to bridge the basic sciences and medicine was recognized with a Halo Award in 2018.
In 2006, Woodruff introduced the term ''
oncofertility'' to describe the application of her work to meeting the fertility needs of young cancer patients and she has "been at the center of the movement ever since."
With a $21.5-million
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
Interdisciplinary Roadmap Grant awarded in 2007, she launched the
Oncofertility Consortium, an interdisciplinary team of oncologists, fertility specialists, social scientists, educators, and policy makers dedicated to the clinical care of women at risk of losing their fertility because of cancer treatment. As part of the Oncofertility Consortium, Dr. Woodruff helped form the National Physicians Cooperative (NPC) to facilitate sharing of fertility preservation protocols and techniques between reproductive endocrinology practices and ensure that clinicians and patients receive up-to-date information about available treatment options.
Educational work
Woodruff was named director of the newly formed Institute for Women’s Health Research at Northwestern University, where she spearheads advocacy and education on sex equity in biomedical research, the attrition of women from STEM fields, and the need for greater knowledge of basic science concepts among patients. Her call for sex equity in clinical trials was the subject of a 2014 interview with Lesley Stahl on ''60 Minutes''.
Woodruff also created the Women’s Health Science Program (WHSP) for High School Girls & Beyond to provide science education programs to 9th -12th grade female students in Chicago Public Schools. WHSP runs four academies: the Oncofertility Saturday Academy (OSA), Cardiology Summer Academy (CSA), Infectious Disease Summer Academy (IDSA), and Physical Science Weekend Academy (PSWA). For this work, Dr. Woodruff was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring in an Oval Office ceremony in 2011.
Woodruff created a series of videos for 8- to 12-year-olds covering topics such as puberty, menstruation, and anatomy; a MOOC for college students on reproductive health; and the Repropedia, a dictionary of reproductive science and health terms, created and updated by science and clinician contributors, for links to websites and social media to ensure accurate understanding of key terms by the public.
In 2015, Dr. Woodruff was named the Director of the Center for Reproductive Science at Northwestern University. In 2016, she founded the Masters of Science in Reproductive Science and Medicine program within the Center.
Awards and recognition
Woodruff holds 10 U.S. Patents. In 2017, she received a
Guggenheim Award and was elected to the
National Academy of Inventors
The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 2010. ...
. She was elected as a fellow to the
National Academy of Medicine in 2018. Woodruff is also an elected Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
in 2005 as well as the
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2017.
Service
Woodruff has served on the school board of the Chicago-based
Young Women’s Leadership Charter School and as president of
The Endocrine Society
The Endocrine Society is a professional, international medical organization in the field of endocrinology and metabolism, founded in 1916 as The Association for the Study of Internal Secretions. The official name of the organization was changed ...
, and was selected as Editor-in-Chief of the journal ''
Endocrinology
Endocrinology (from '' endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental event ...
'' in September 2017.
Dr. Woodruff has also served with the Economic Club of Chicago since 2015 and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the
Adler Planetarium since 2018.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodruff, Teresa
Living people
Olivet Nazarene University alumni
Northwestern University faculty
American oncologists
Women oncologists
20th-century American scientists
20th-century American women scientists
21st-century American scientists
21st-century American women scientists
Year of birth missing (living people)
American scientists
American women academics
Members of the National Academy of Medicine