Women’s Health Research Hub

Shaping the Future of Women’s Health

WHRH fosters collaboration and discovery to transform women’s health research

About

The Harvard-MIT Women’s Health Research Hub (WHRH) connects graduate students who are tackling the most pressing challenges in women's health.

By bringing together students, researchers, clinicians, and innovators, WHRH catalyzes collaborative discovery, mentorship, and education to accelerate equity-driven science and build a new foundation for women’s health. Our mission is to foster interdisciplinary connections, spark innovation, and promote impactful research that advances women’s health equity and outcomes. We do this by hosting lunch seminars, networking events, and panel discussions with professionals in the field. By bringing together students from varied backgrounds, WHRH strives to inspire new ideas, collaborations, and a thriving community dedicated to shaping the future of women’s health research. The Women’s Health Research Hub is run by PhD students at MIT and Harvard: Alana Mermin-Bunnell, Karla Manzanares, Maria Vina Lopez and Chelsey Campillo Rodriguez

Women’s Health Research Hub

Our Goals

Community

Provide a resource-sharing community for people interested in women’s health research

Space to share resources about
Labs & Faculty: Labs doing women’s health work at Harvard & MIT
Courses: Women’s health–related classes at Harvard-MIT
Funding Opportunities
Conferences & Events
Interesting Papers: Curated reading list
Startups: Women’s health startups to know

Mentorship

Mentorship from later-stage students, post-doctoral fellows, professors, and medical and industry professionals

Space to share resources about
Data club
Lunch & Learn seminars

Networking

Within Harvard and MIT among peers and professors
Opportunities for lab collaborations for thesis projects
Broader within academic labs nationally and internationally in the space

Join the WHRH Slack Community

JOIN OUR RESEARCH HUB:

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Women’s Health Research Hub

Resources avaible

List of courses

Course code	Course name	Professor	Topics	School	Term
SCRB 135	Reproductive Biology	Kara McKinley	The development of gametes; sex chromosomes; menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause; early development in natural and synthetic embryo systems; ethical considerations surrounding reproduction.	Harvard	Spring
HST.071/70	Human Reproductive Biology	Anastasia Koniaris, David Page, Trevin Lau	This course is designed to give the student a clear understanding of the pathophysiology of the menstrual cycle, fertilization, implantation, ovum growth development, differentiation and associated abnormalities. Disorders of fetal development including the principles of teratology and the mechanism of normal and abnormal parturition will be covered, as well as ethical issues in reproductive science and significant medical issues affecting pregnant women such as pre-eclampsia and diabetes. Fetal asphyxia and its consequences will be reviewed with emphasis on the technology currently available for its detection. In addition the conclusion of the reproductive cycle, menopause, and the use of hormonal replacement will be covered. Emphasis on quantitative techniques, when applicable, including modern approaches to fetal surveillance and in vitro fertilization as well as prenatal diagnosis will be employed.	MIT-HMS	Fall
WGH 207	Advanced Topics in Women, Gender and Health	Sabra Katz-Wise	Women's Health Courses at Harvard-MIT 100% D4 This interdepartmental, interdisciplinary seminar will provide a forum to analyze how diverse gender-related constructs (including identity, expression, and behavior) influence public health research and practice. Invited speakers will give examples of cutting-edge issues in public health research and practice, focusing on how gender contributes to understanding and intervening on population distributions of health, disease, and well-being, with an eye towards intersectionality in relation to racism, classism, heterosexism, cissexism, and other forms of social inequity and context. This interdepartmental, interdisciplinary seminar will provide a forum to analyze how diverse gender-related constructs (including identity, expression, and behavior) influence public health research and practice. Invited speakers will give examples of cutting-edge issues in public health research and practice, focusing on how gender contributes to understanding and intervening on population distributions of health, disease, and well-being, with an eye towards intersectionality in relation to racism, classism, heterosexism, cissexism, and other forms of social inequity and context. Turn on screen reader support To enable screen reader support, press ⌘+Option+Z To learn about keyboard shortcuts, press ⌘slash	HSPH	Spring
WGH 210	Women, Gender and Health: Critical Issues in Mental Health	Elizabeth Boskey	This course explores issues relevant to mental illness, mental health from a gender perspective. Course themes include illness constructs, life cycle and transitions, collective and individual trauma, role and relationship and embodiment. Topics include eating disorders, pain, hormonally mediated mood disorders, and PTSD.	HSPH	Spring
BETH 716	Ethics in Reproductive Medicine	Vardit Morris Ravitsky, Louise King	The course will examine ethical issues that arise in reproductive medicine and women's health. Specifically, we will address ethical questions that arise in the context of providing assisted reproduction services, family planning services, pregnancy care and surgical services to women and their families. Questions and issues that will be addressed in the course include the following: ethics surrounding the abortion and fetal tissue research debate; multiple cases in assisted reproduction including sex selection, savior siblings, age restrictions in IVF, intra-familial gamete donation, post-humous reproduction; cases at the maternal fetal divide, and discussion of the balance of interests in these cases; genetic engineering in assisted reproduction.	HMS	Spring
EPI 269	Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology I	Stacey Missmer, Jennifer Mongiovi, Kathryn Terry	Women's Health Courses at Harvard-MIT 100% D7 This course provides master and doctoral students the opportunity to gain a background in reproductive and perinatal epidemiology and understand the unique methodological challenges to the field. The course will cover a range of substantive topics including: the biology of human reproduction; an evolutionary perspective of pregnancy; fertility and time to pregnancy; infertility and its treatment; complications in pregnancy; adverse perinatal outcomes such as preterm birth; fetal exposures and windows of vulnerability; sexual health and induced abortion; gynecological cancers; and women’s health across the lifecourse. Methodologic complexities of studying these areas will be highlighted through critical reading and discussion of published literature. Measurement of these outcomes, problems of study design, and sources of biases will be discussed. This course provides master and doctoral students the opportunity to gain a background in reproductive and perinatal epidemiology and understand the unique methodological challenges to the field. The course will cover a range of substantive topics including: the biology of human reproduction; an evolutionary perspective of pregnancy; fertility and time to pregnancy; infertility and its treatment; complications in pregnancy; adverse perinatal outcomes such as preterm birth; fetal exposures and windows of vulnerability; sexual health and induced abortion; gynecological cancers; and women’s health across the lifecourse. Methodologic complexities of studying these areas will be highlighted through critical reading and discussion of published literature. Measurement of these outcomes, problems of study design, and sources of biases will be discussed. Turn on screen reader support To enable screen reader support, press ⌘+Option+Z To learn about keyboard shortcuts, press ⌘slash	HSPH	Fall
EPI 270	Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology II: Advanced Methods	Shruthi Mahalingaiah Zifan Wang	This course is an advanced seminar in reproductive epidemiologic methods. It is intended for graduate students who have a research focus and strong interest in reproductive epidemiology. The course will cover methodological challenges in study design, analysis, and interpretation of reproductive epidemiologic data. Study design considerations include exposure timing related to the reproductive outcome, missingness, informative presence in hospital sourced datasets, and generalizability. We will address topics of bias, confounding, model building based on conceptual models. Expanding traditional reproductive outcomes from gestational and obstetric outcomes (fetal development, complications of pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes), to considering outcomes across the lifespan such as menstrual cycles, gynecological conditions (such as ovulation disorders, uterine fibroids, and endometriosis), fertility outcomes, and the implications of reproductive health status for chronic disease. This course will emphasize the practical and applied aspects of conducting reproductive and perinatal epidemiological studies. The course will be led by Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, with faculty joining to present methodological cases. Students must read the case materials before class and be prepared for active class discussion. Pass/fail grading will be based on class participation.	HSPH	Spring

List of professors

Professor	School	Topics
David Pepin	Harvard Medical School - MGH	AMH, fertoprotection, contraception, menopause, ovarian cancer
Kara Mckinley	Harvard	Uterus regeneration, menstruation
Michael Rogers	Harvard - BCH	Endometriosis
Don Ingber	Harvard - Wyss Institute	Contraceptives, bacterial vaginosis, endometriosis, organ-on-a-chip of female reproductive tract
Doug Kwon	Harvard - Ragon	Bacterial vaginosis, HIV
Shruthi Mahalingaiah	Harvard School of Public Health	Environmental exposures affecting Womens Health, Apple Women's Health Study
The Women’s Health Catalyst at the Wyss Institute	Wyss Insitute	Breast reconstruction, lactation, vaginal microbiome, ovarian/breat cancer, endometriosis, organ-a-chip for womens health
Cynthia Morton	Harvard Medical School - BWH	Uterine fibroids
Bo Rueda	Harvard Medical School - MGH	Gynecological cancers
Zohreh Izadifar	Harvard Medical School - BCH	Preclinical Human Urogenital In Vitro Models, Mechanisms of Urogential Health and Disease
Linda Griffith	MIT	Endometriosis
Michal “Mikki” Caspi Tal	MIT	Sex differences in chronic illnesses and in immune responses to infection
Sarah Hill	Harvard - Dana Farber	Breat, ovarian and uterine cancer
David Sinclair	Harvard Medical School	Female reproductive aging, menopause, fertility
Vadim Gladyshev	Harvard Medical School - BWH	Female reproductive aging, menopause, fertility, pregnancy
Angela Belcher	MIT	Ovarian cancer
Mike Yaffe	MIT	Ovarian cancer
Alex Shalek	MIT	Contraception, infectious diseases in FRT, breast milk
Bharti khurana	Harvard Medical School - BWH	AI for intimiate partner violence detection
David Page	MIT - Whitead Institute	Sex differences, menopause
Katerina Ribbeck	MIT	Pre-term birth, cervical mucus
Smita Gopinath	Harvard School of Public Health	Vaginal Microbiome, Gut-vaginal signaling axis
Ellen Roche	MIT	Medical devices for gynecology
Andrea Edlow	Harvard-MGH	maternal immune activation on fetal brain development and offspring behavior, and how these effects are modified by placental immune activation and fetal sex

Leadership

Alana Mermin-Bunnell

Alana Mermin-Bunnell is a PhD candidate in the Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology (HST) MEMP Program. She works in the Pépin Lab at MGH focusing on ovarian biology and menopause. Alana completed her undergraduate degree in Bioengineering at Stanford University in 2023. alanamb@mit.edu

Karla Manzanares

Karla Manzanares is a PhD student in Biological Engineering at MIT. She works in the Shalek lab at IMES, Ragon, and Broad investigating endometrial biology and contraceptives. Karla completed her undergraduate degree in Bioengineering at Stanford University in 2023. karlamg@mit.edu

Maria Vina Lopez

Maria Vina Lopez is a PhD student in Biological & Biomedical Sciences at Harvard Medical School. She is co-advised by Dr. David Sinclair and Dr. Vadim Gladyshev at HMS and BWH working on reproductive aging and rejuvenation. Maria is originally from Santiago de Compostela, Spain and completed her undergraduate degree in Biology and Math at the University of Maine in 2023. maria_vinalopez@g.harvard.edu

Chelsey Campillo Rodriguez

Chelsey Campillo Rodriguez is a PhD candidate in Bioengineering at Harvard. She works in the Slade Lab studying the relationship between the menstrual cycle and physical activity using wearable sensing and machine learning. Chelsey holds a BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and a MS in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. ccampillorodriguez@g.harvard.edu