Endocrinology Researcher Receives Top American Science Award

Reproductive endocrinology researcher Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD, has been awarded a National Medal of Science for her pioneering work in preserving fertility for people with cancer, among other achievements.

Woodruff is the Michigan State University (MSU) research foundation professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology and in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and served as the president of the Endocrine Society in 2013-2014. She was among 14 scientists who received the medal in a White House ceremony on January 3, 2024.

Established in 1959 by the US Congress, the National Medal of Science is “the highest recognition the nation can bestow on scientists and engineers,” according to the National Science Foundation’s website. It is given to “individuals deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to knowledge in the physical, biological, mathematical, engineering, or social and behavioral sciences, in service to the Nation.” 

Woodruff’s scientific work focuses on the female reproductive system. Her Medal particularly cited two specific areas: She created the scientific field and coined the term “oncofertility,” which strives to preserve fertility in patients with cancer. And she was a guiding force in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2016 requirement for researchers to consider sex as a biological variable in all NIH-funded research on vertebrate animals and humans.

Of note, she also codiscovered the so-called “zinc spark,” a previously unknown marker of a fertilized egg’s viability.

“I’m humbled to receive this award. I have had the honor and pleasure to work with so many students and collaborators throughout my career. My fundamental belief is science should help tomorrow’s patients be treated better than today’s,” Woodruff said in an MSU statement.

Woodruff’s former postdoctoral student Monica M. Laronda, PhD, told Medscape Medical News, “Teresa supported my career with her guidance and wisdom. Teresa made a lasting impression on me when I was a PhD student and member of the Center for Reproductive Science at Northwestern University. She seemed larger than life and represented for me the type of leader and trailblazer I aspire to be. Her endless enthusiasm for science, for promoting women’s health research, and for training the next generation is contagious.” 

Laronda is now director of the gonadal tissue processing, fertility & hormone preservation & restoration program in the Departments of Endocrinology and Pediatric Surgery at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in Chicago. She noted that this program “would not exist if Teresa had not shown a light on fertility as a major quality-of-life concern for cancer patients…Her guidance and the opportunities she afforded me imprinted how I look for solutions.” 

Preserving Fertility in Patients With Cancer

In 2002, Woodruff was named associate director for basic research at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. Soon thereafter, a mother brought in her adolescent son with cancer and asked about banking his sperm. Woodruff asked what the center does for young women in that situation. “The answer was, ‘well, they really need to focus on their cancer.’ Part of the reason was we didn’t have any good methods or operational way to provide fertility options. And that was really the light bulb moment,” Woodruff told Medscape Medical News. 

In 2006, she received an NIH Roadmap grant to create The Oncofertility Consortium. “It brought together clinicians and scientists and nurses and social scientists and folks interested in the law and religion and insurance and reimbursement. The consortium is really a partnership between all parts of academic, science and medicine,” Woodruff said.

The Consortium addresses all aspects of enabling parenthood for cancer survivors, encompassing freezing embryos and sperm, research into newer methods, and also adoption. “We helped to change adoption services…At the time, if you were someone who has survived cancer and now wanted to adopt a family, you were precluded from doing that.” 

Ongoing Consortium research addresses issues such as overall hormonal health in cancer survivors and predicting and preserving future fertility in children with cancer.

Laronda credits Woodruff with informing her current research into the development of a bioprosthetic ovary that thus far has restored fertility and hormones in mice with a three-dimensional printed scaffold. “I caught her enthusiasm for reproductive research, women’s health and teaching and I hope to infect my own trainees with this same passion,” Laronda told Medscape Medical News.

Including Women in Trials Essential for Avoiding Adverse Effects

Woodruff also has worked to ensure that sex is considered as a biological factor in research and clinical trials, leading to the 2016 NIH mandate. That idea first came to her while she was a postdoc at Genentech in the 1990’s. “We were doing large studies on cardiovascular drugs, on 50,000 males. I raised my hand and asked ‘why aren’t we doing this in females?’”

Her efforts included publishing articles, lobbying NIH, and appearing in a 2014 episode of 60 Minutes.

The issue is critical, as some drugs tested only in men have been discovered to have greater adverse effects in women only after they reach the market. One example is the 2013 US Food and Drug labeling change for Ambien, and a warning about not driving the morning after taking it.

“In that case, it’s because it clears the system of females slower than males…It’s absolutely true that if you’re studying the biology only on males, on average, adverse events will accumulate more in females…So all the way in the entire pipeline, consideration of sex is an important thing. I was so delighted that the nation is recognizing that as a critical part to the equation of our health,” she said.

Zinc Spark: A Rare Breakthrough

Another noteworthy element of Woodruff’s career was the discovery, along with her Michigan State colleague Professor Thomas V. O’Halloran, of a “zinc spark” that indicates successful human egg fertilization and embryo quality.

“As a scientist, you’re not usually making an absolute discovery that you didn’t know to look for. Usually you’re building on what someone else has done. But my collaborator and I made the discovery that zinc is accumulated in the last 6 hours of an egg during its final maturation, before it’s fertilized, and it accumulates 20 billion zinc atoms. More zinc goes in the egg than iron goes in a red blood cell. And nobody knew that before,” she told Medscape Medical News.

And then, “at the time of fertilization, when the sperm connects with the receptors on the egg, that zinc gets expelled in this enormous zinc spark…It blocks the second sperm from entering the egg. And it resets the egg so that instead of undergoing meiosis, it can undergo mitosis, which makes an embryo. It’s the first key signal of a new embryo.” 

The amount of zinc released correlates with offspring. “So eventually, we hope it will be used as an external marker, so you don’t have to take out a cell of the embryo to see if the embryo is going to be good.” That work is ongoing.

According to Laronda, “Teresa has made a lasting impact on women scientists, reproductive endocrinology researchers and patients who are now counseled about their fertility. Teresa’s successes as a scientist, researcher and mentor represent the very best of our nation’s scientists. This award was well deserved.” 

Woodruff and Laronda had no disclosures.

Miriam E. Tucker is a freelance journalist based in the Washington DC area. She is a regular contributor to Medscape Medical News, with other work appearing in the Washington Post, NPR’s Shots blog, and Diatribe. She is on X (formerly Twitter) @MiriamETucker.