A symposium to propel ovarian health research beyond the “Dark Ages”

Researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors converge to address major unmet needs facing female health.

The ovaries have been neglected for far too long. While often confined to discussions of reproduction, these crucial organs regulate hormonal processes that touch every corner of systemic and mental health. The ovaries also age at an astounding pace — considered “geriatric” by age 35, while the heart and lungs are still in their prime. After the ovaries undergo menopause, health risks rise rapidly, including higher rates of chronic illness, heart disease, neurodegeneration, and osteoporosis.

Even though ovarian aging sets the tempo for health decline, a lack of research funding has left many of the factors driving that process unknown. Understanding these drivers can help researchers uncover methods for slowing, or even reversing, age-related degeneration.

Inspired by breakthroughs in ovarian research, QB3 convened the “Systemic Health Regulated by the Ovarian Pacemaker” symposium on Tuesday, April 14. Scores of researchers, clinicians, biomedical entrepreneurs, and investors converged at Bakar Bio Labs to hear from leaders in ovarian research and learn about the commercialization of, and investment in, new ovarian health technologies. A key goal of the symposium was to foster personal connections that could give birth to the next generation of research and innovation.

Understanding the ovaries at every level

Many of the processes affecting the ovaries and their universal impacts remain a mystery, partly due to the underfunding of female health research. While one in three females face conditions related to ovarian dysfunction, “we’re really in the Dark Ages with respect to understanding ovarian function,” neuroscientist Jennifer Garrison told the audience.

The symposium’s first two sessions explored the basic and preclinical research currently broadening scientists’ understanding of ovarian function and health. Topics ranged from how researchers can classify and measure ovarian aging and illness to gaining a fuller understanding of how the ovaries operate and how those processes can be modeled.

Speakers discussed research establishing biomarkers for the ovarian aging process and how these can help identify therapeutic targets to slow and reverse ovarian degeneration. The presenters also shared breakthroughs in using structural, molecular, and genetic methods to explore ovarian function and disease, including mass spectrometry and scRNA-seq.

Additionally, the sessions touched on the promises and pitfalls of using non-human models to study ovarian function. Speakers showed successful examples of mouse models being used to both map the ovaries and study effective therapies. For research where no analog exists in mouse or primate models, presenters explained how samples can be derived directly from patients or human stem cells.

“Getting back to the science of the ovary requires laying a lot of runway before the plane takes off,” said UCLA biologist Amander Clark. “And that’s what happens in academic labs.”

From lab bench to bedside, the future of ovarian health

The final three sessions of the day explored future directions for understanding and treating ovarian degeneration and disease, including prospects for funding innovation. Speakers discussed recently uncovered connections between the ovaries and systemic health, and risk factors that may accelerate ovarian degeneration.

The ovaries’ impacts on broader bodily systems — including the nervous system, the brain, and the heart — were explored. Talks revealed the endocrine inflection points presented by milestones in the reproductive cycle, the effect of sex chromosomes and gonads on longevity and cognitive function, and the connections between ovarian health and cardiovascular risk.

Speakers also described cutting-edge directions in therapeutics development and harnessing AI to accelerate the identification and treatment of ovarian degeneration and illness. The sessions concluded with a talk about the future of funding R&D addressing female health, and how messaging strategies can help draw investor interest.

The sessions closed out with a panel of executives and investors who are creating opportunities to fund female health research and biotech startups. At a time when seed and series A funding has slowed across the biotech sector, the panelists pointed out positive progress being made toward supporting female health.

“Five years ago, this would not have been possible,” said Michal Elovitz, CEO of Nuttall Women’s Health, pointing to the crowd of researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors who had convened to focus on addressing unmet needs impacting ovarian health. The panelists agreed that while female health research has been severely neglected, discovery and funding opportunities are both on the rise.

The symposium was the third such convened in recent years by QB3; previous symposia tackled unmet needs in autoimmune disease and future applications for neural organoids. QB3 was established to unite scientists, generate new research trajectories, and promote collaboration across the UC campuses and beyond. These yearly symposia are core to that strategy, focusing on a single area of science fertile for high-impact innovation.

“We choose an area where there’s exciting science being done across a cross-section of UC labs, and where there’s potential for our researchers to help address major unmet medical needs,” said Katarina Klett, QB3’s director of research translation and a member of the symposium’s planning committee. “Then we engage experts from academia and industry throughout the planning process. That way, the symposium acts like a springboard for new ideas and ventures to really take off running.”

 While the full impact of the past symposia is hard to fully quantify, QB3’s collaborative research team has engaged 75 investigators from previous events to launch 11 multidisciplinary, multi-institution collaborative projects, resulting in 16 proposal submissions that have already secured $28 million in funding.

“Each symposium we convene results in countless connections between researchers and institutions,” said QB3 Grants Coordinator Lise Barbé. “Over the next year, I’ll be working with many of the people who attended today’s event to come up with new research programs that will translate into real-world impact. That’s the power of bringing people together and keeping the conversation going long after the conference is over.”

While these newly-formed relationships will help propel innovation in ovarian health research, that innovation can’t come soon enough. As investor Naseem Sayani told the audience, ovarian health impacts the “50% of the population birthing 100% of the future.”

This symposium was made possible thanks to the contributions of the planning committee: Lin He, Katarina Klett, Diana Laird, Widya Mulyasasmita, and Gloria Wu.

The event was sponsored by Wilson Sonsini, CFGO, Lilly Gateway Labs, AccelPeople, Mispro Biotech Services, Stifel Bank, TriNet Group, Westwood & Wilshire, and the contribution of an anonymous donor.