EFA2011: Endometriosis pioneers honoured at 3rd EFA Blossom Ball for Endometriosis
New York, 18 march 2011
Caroline Gargett and David Redwine were this evening honoured by the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EFA) for their roles in moving the field of endometriosis forward.
Speaking in New York’s Public LIbrary at the 3rd Blossom Ball for Endometriosis, EFA co-founder and chair Tamer Seckin paid tribute to these two pioneers.
Dr Caroline Gargett and Dr David Redwine at the 3rd Blossom Ball
Caroline Gargett
EFA president, Tamer Seckin, presents Caroline Gargett with her award
Dr Gargett, who heads the Women’s Health Unit and is a deputy director of the Ritchie Centre at the Monash Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, founded the Endometrial Stem Cell Group in 2004. She is internationally recognised as a world authority on endometrial stem cells, and is vice president of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research.
Her pioneering research has discovered two types of adult stem cells in the highly regenerative endometrial lining of the uterus, and she published the first papers, reviews, and book chapters on this topic.
More recently Dr Gargett’s group discovered the first markers that enable the isolation of mesenchymal stem cells from human endometrium. Her group also identified cancer stem cell activity in endometrial cancer and is currently examining the role of endometrial stem cells in endometriosis and endometrial cancer, and the potential use of endometrial mesenchymal stem cells in a tissue engineering application for pelvic organ prolapse repair surgery.
In addition to several national and international awards, Dr Gargett was featured in the NHMRC publication “10 of the best research projects in 2008“.
Dr Gargett receives her award
David Redwine
EFA president, Tamer Seckin, presents David Redwine with his award
Dr Redwine has been active in research and surgical excision of endometriosis since his first wife was diagnosed with the disease in 1979. He has experience in over 3,000 surgical cases from around the world, including 900 cases of intestinal endometriosis, which has enabled him to tabulate the range of visual manifestations of the disease, which revealed a historical lack of understanding of the real nature of endometriosis.
Dr Redwine has developed economical techniques for laparoscopic excision for virtually every pelvic and intestinal disease presentation possible, and claims that endometriosis can be cured by excision in approximately 60% of women with the disease.
Mülleriosis, his theory of origin of the disease published in 1988, is now receiving increasing support from genetic studies illuminating endometriosis as an embryologically-patterned process governed in part by poly-genic processes, principally HOX genes. Dr Redwine presented this data earlier today at EFA’s 2nd Annual Scientific Symposium.
Dr Redwine has been in private practice in Bend (Oregon), USA, since 1978.
