Purdue WGHI awards pilot grants to advance women’s health

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s Women’s Global Health Institute (WGHI) has announced six pilot research grant awards aimed at solving critical problems in women’s health and quality of life. Each project also advances Purdue’s efforts in interdisciplinary, translational research.

The projects are:

• Engineering liver organoid models to identify age-related mechanisms of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease in women. This project, led by Sunghee “Estelle” Park, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, will build three-dimensional liver “organoids” from patient cells to study why postmenopausal women are especially susceptible to metabolic fatty liver disease. Park aims to pinpoint how estrogen loss drives inflammation and fibrosis in liver tissue by comparing organoids derived from pre- and post-menopausal women.
• Effects of pregnancy and aging on maternal cardiovascular health. 
  Craig Goergen, professor of biomedical engineering, will study how pregnancy and advancing maternal age jointly affect arterial remodeling and postpartum recovery. At 20.1 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019, the U.S. maternal mortality rate is more than double that of other developed countries and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause. Results are expected to help explain pregnancy-related heart risks and to better inform prenatal cardiovascular care.
• Investigating the role of the GABAergic system in menopause symptoms. 
  Ulrike Dydak, professor of health sciences, and co-principal investigator Laura Murray-Kolb, professor and department head of nutrition science, will use brain imaging to explore why perimenopausal women have mood, memory and hot-flash symptoms. To determine possible interventions for menopause symptoms, they will use edited magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in key brain regions and relate these levels to cognitive performance and depression surveys in women dealing with hormonal changes.
• The influence of diet intake on the brain-gut-bile acid axis as contributors to colorectal cancer disparities in Black women. Patricia Wolf, assistant professor of nutrition science, will study biological and lifestyle factors underlying the 31% higher colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality rate in U.S. Black women versus non-Hispanic Whites. She will analyze how chronic stress, dietary taurine and gut bile acid interact to create a microbial environment that promotes DNA-damaging hydrogen sulfide in the colon and determine whether diet changes can alter bile-acid profiles and cortisol to reduce CRC risk.
• Granzyme A is critical for maintaining uterine/ovarian homeostasis and fertility. Matthew Olson, associate professor of biological sciences and co-PI Tzu-Wen Cross, assistant professor of nutrition science, are studying the immune-derived enzyme granzyme A’s role in women’s reproductive health. Preliminary data show that female mice lacking the enzyme become infertile after developing ovarian and uterine inflammation and disrupted reproductive cycles. The research will identify which immune cells produce granzyme A in the reproductive tract and how this protease supports normal hormone cycling and suppresses inflammation.
• Protease inhibitors in early pregnancy: regulation of implantation and maternal–fetal interaction by TKDPs. Viju Vijayan Pillai, assistant professor of comparative pathobiology, will study protease inhibitors called trophoblast Kunitz domain proteins (TKDPs) needed for successful embryo implantation. Unbalanced protease activity can cause implantation failure or preeclampsia. Pillai’s project will use CRISPR gene editing in cell and animal models to dissect how TKDPs control protease activity at the maternal-fetal interface. The work will contribute to the understanding of pregnancy biology and inform strategies to improve maternal and fetal health.

Each of the 2025 WGHI pilot grant recipients will receive $15,000 in seed funding for interdisciplinary projects that span engineering, health sciences, nutrition and veterinary medicine. This year’s awards are made possible through the collaboration of the WGHI, Purdue Engineering Initiative in Engineering Medicine, the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, College of Health and Human Sciences, the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Comparative Pathobiology.

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Media contact: Amy Raley, [email protected]