When her own experience with a complicated pregnancy reignited an interest in medicine and science, Dr. Lauren Osborne left her career in publishing to pursue medical school. Now a reproductive psychiatrist, Dr. Osborne leads the way in researching the connection between immune system dysregulation, stress reactivity, and the role of allopregnanolone in mood and anxiety disorders, particularly in pregnant and postpartum women. In this episode from the Advances In Care archives, she discusses how her expansive research is getting us one step closer to decoding perinatal mood disorders, and she calls for increased training in reproductive psychiatry to help OBGYNs better treat their patients.

Since this episode aired Dr. Osborne and her colleagues have taken their research on perinatal mood disorders one step further. They conducted the first comprehensive study of the metabolic pathway of the hormone progesterone to pinpoint alterations that could predict which women are at a higher risk of postpartum depression, or PD. They are hopeful that their findings will lead to the development of a blood test that could be used during pregnancy to predict PD and identify which patients may benefit from prophylactic treatment.

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On this episode of Advances in Care, host Erin Welsh speaks with Dr. Zev Williams, Chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Fertility at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia and Director of the Columbia University Fertility Center. Recently, Dr. Williams and a team of researchers and clinicians used artificial intelligence to develop a system called STAR, or Sperm Track and Recovery, which combines advanced imaging with innovations in microfluidic chip technology to more accurately identify and capture sperm in samples from patients with azoospermia – a condition that often leaves men with untraceable numbers of sperm in their semen.

Dr. Williams explains that some azoospermia patients might have two or three sperm cells as opposed to the typical two or three million and having human researchers looking for those cells under a microscope is painstaking and rarely leads to success. Inspired by the AI-powered technology that astrophysicists use to find stars, Dr. Williams and his colleagues set out to build a tool that could help embryologists not only find those few sperm in a field of cell debris, but also collect them gently for future fertilization in an expedited manner.

The effort took five years of research and development, along with a collaborative bench-to-bedside research approach that Dr. Williams says is unique to the Columbia University Fertility Center. But the work paid off, resulting in a successful pregnancy and a promising example of how AI will continue to transform reproductive medicine.

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Dr. Zev Williams is the Wendy D. Havens Associate Professor of Women's Health at Columbia and the Chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center. As a physician scientist, Dr. Williams' focus has been on helping those suffering from recurrent pregnancy loss and infertility and developing novel technologies and treatments to improve patient success.

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On this episode of Advances in Care, host Erin Welsh hears from Dr. Meghna Trivedi, an oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, who is spearheading new research to assess cancer patients’ risk of developing chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy–an all too common side effect of cancer treatment.

Dr. Trivedi describes a study that she and her team undertook to identify and assess patient risk for developing a specific type of chemotherapy-induced neuropathy called TIPN, which is caused by taxanes, a commonly used chemotherapy drug. Based on this SWOG trial, known as S1714, physicians are better able to monitor at-risk patients for these side effects and adjust their treatment regimens accordingly.

Then, Dr. Trivedi explains how her team–also led by Dr. Daniel Hertz, PharmD, PhD at the University of Michigan–was recently awarded a prestigious R37 grant to identify a biomarker for TIPN. This study, which she co-leads with Dr. Daniel Hertz, PharmD, PhD at the University of Michigan, will help doctors understand the mechanisms for why TIPN develops in the first place, and will be a critical step forward in creating targeted therapies to treat this disease before it starts.

Finally, Dr. Trivedi dives into the clinical trials her team is currently conducting to identify new therapeutic approaches to address and prevent the effects of neuropathy, such as cryotherapy.

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Dr. Meghna Trivedi, is a medical oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian and co-leads the Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Program at Columbia’s Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary initiative aimed at screening, preventing, diagnosing, and treating hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. This innovative program brings together the resources of a world-renowned academic institution, including cutting-edge genomic testing, clinical trials, and experts in hereditary cancers across different specialties. Dr. Trivedi’s research and care expertise also includes cancer genetics and genomics, precision medicine, and chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy. She is the principal investigator on several clinical trials, and has authored numerous publications in leading peer-reviewed journals.

To learn more about the SWOG trial visit swog.org/clinical-trials/s1714

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