The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) will honor Teresa Woodruff, PhD, with a Women’s Health Visionary Award for her contributions to women’s health research in endocrinology, ovarian biology, and reproductive science during its 35th Annual Awards Gala.
Woodruff is also being honored for her leadership surrounding the sex as a biological variable policy within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and integration of women’s health research across the NIH. Woodruff is a MSU Research Foundation Professor and President Emerita of Michigan State University, and past president of the Endocrine Society. She is responsible for many discoveries, three of which have changed our understanding of fundamental reproductive processes and others that led to a new field of medicine.
Woodruff and her collaborators discovered the remarkable ‘zinc spark’ which allows an assessment of egg quality in a non-invasive way; she was the first to mature ovarian follicles leading to live births of mice outside the body and fertilizable human eggs; she used this technology to develop pathways for cancer patients receiving life-preserving but fertility-threatening treatments to have a family, a field of medicine known as ‘oncofertility’. Additionally, she created the first three-dimensional (3D) printed ovarian ‘bioprosthetic’ which produced the first live birth from a printed organ; cloned the inhibin and activin subunits and defined the molecular basis of negative feedback in the reproductive system; and reconstructed an ovarian cycle outside the body in a system now known as EVATAR/Lattice.
“Oncofertility is a discipline born of the unmet needs of women that profoundly changed the landscape for all,” Woodruff tells Endocrine News. “The vision to see all of us is what this award celebrates, and I am profoundly grateful for the work to be recognized.”
Woodruff championed the inclusion of sex as a biological variable in federal grants and in the process, created new areas of education in the reproductive sciences. She was awarded the Presidential Award for Mentoring in Science, Technology, and Math by President Obama and the National Medal of Science by President Biden. Woodruff is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Inventors, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
SWHR supporters will gather in person for the 2025 Annual Awards Gala to celebrate the achievements Woodruff as well as other women’s health leaders. The event will be held on April 30, 2025, at the Willard InterContinental Washington D.C., with a reception beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET and dinner following at 7:00 p.m. ET.
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