Biography
Dr. Sadovsky is the Executive Director of Magee Women's Research Institute, the Elsie Hilliard Hillman Chair of Women's Health Research, Distinguished Professor of OBGYN, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and Associate Dean, Women’s Health Research and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh. He is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology (Washington University), and maternal-fetal medicine (UCSF). His NIH-funded research focuses on feto-placental development and molecular mechanisms underlying placental function, aiming to better understand early human development and pregnancy health. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians. He has served as president of the Society for Reproductive Investigation, on the Councils for NIH-NICHD and the March of Dimes, and currently serves on the NIH Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health. In 2013 he was awarded the Cozzarelli Prize in Biomedical Science from the National Academy of Sciences.

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Illuminating the Black Box of Placental Health

Biography
Dr. Bairey Merz's research interests include women and cardiovascular disease, mental stress and heart disease, the role of exercise and stress management in reversing disease, the role of cholesterol and nutrition management in heart disease, and adverse pregnancy outcomes and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Bairey Merz is a prolific lecturer and member of many professional organizations and has received numerous investigational grants and chairs the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored WISE (Women's Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation) initiative. Dr. Bairey Merz has received numerous awards and honors, and her extensive scientific publication record spans 425+ scientific papers, 315+ abstracts, myriad book chapters, and countless peer-reviewed journals.ompleted her residency at the University of California, San Francisco, where she served as Chief Medical Resident before completing fellowships in clinical cardiology and nuclear cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

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Women's Heart Disease: Update 2023
It is established that there are gender differences in the clinical manifestation of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the incidence of cardiovascular event, and the use of evidenced-based CVD therapies. There are also gender and sex differences physiologic factors unique to women or men that may affect cardiovascular risk, diagnosis and therapies.

Biography
David K. Stevenson has made many impactful contributions to the field of neonatology and pediatrics, including his recent studies on the causes of preterm birth and its prevention. He is Investigator for the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford University. Dr. Dr. the Senior Associate Dean for Maternal & Child Health, the Co-Director of the Stanford Maternal & Child Health Research Institute, and the Principal Stevenson has received many awards, including the Virginia Apgar Award, which is the highest award in Perinatal Pediatrics, the Joseph W. St. Geme, Jr. Leadership Award from the Federation of Pediatric Organizations, the Jonas Salk Award for Leadership in Prematurity Prevention from the March of Dimes Foundation, and the John Howland Medal and Award, the highest award in academic pediatrics. In recognition of his achievements, Dr. Stevenson is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Biography
Dr. Kumar is co-founder of MyOme, a clinical whole genome platform company, where he oversees medical and scientific efforts. Prior to MyOme, Akash trained in science and medicine at the University of Washington and completed his medical genetics residency at Stanford University. His scientific contributions include design and implementation of NGS-based methods with applications in cancer genetics and prenatal testing. He has published ten first-author publications in journals including Nature Medicine, PNAS and Genome Medicine and is a co-inventor on one licensed patent. As a practicing medical geneticist at Stanford, Akash believes that early diagnosis/intervention are essential to improve outcomes for children and families affected with disease.

Biography
Dr. Stefanick’s research focuses on women’s health, chronic disease prevention and aging. She has conducted the large Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) randomized controlled trials (RCT) of menopausal hormone therapy, low-fat diet, and calcium & vitamin D on heart disease, cancer, osteoporotic fractures and dementia and is currently Principal Investigator (PI) of the WHI Extension Study, the WHI Strong & Healthy (WHISH) physical activity trial, focusing on heart disease, and the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS). Dr. Stefanick is also founding Director of the Stanford Women’s Health and Sex Differences in Medicine (WHSDM, “wisdom”) Center and teaches courses on the role of sex and gender and sexuality in health over the life course and across the sexual and gender spectra.

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Chronic Disease Prevention

Biography
Dr. Aleksandar Rajkovic serves as the Medical Director and Chief of the Center for Genetic and Genomic Medicine (CGGM) that organizes, coordinates and oversees Clinical Genetics and Genomics Services across the UCSF Health System. He is also Stuart Lindsay Distinguished Professor in Experimental Pathology I, member of the American Society of Clinical Investigator, American Association of Physicians and National Academy of Medicine. His research interests lie in basic and translational medical sciences in reproductive and population genetics. His current work focuses on implementing precision medicine tools across UCSF and evaluate its clinical significance and validity.

Biography
Dr. Aleksandar Rajkovic serves as the Medical Director and Chief of the Center for Genetic and Genomic Medicine (CGGM) that organizes, coordinates and oversees Clinical Genetics and Genomics Services across the UCSF Health System. He is also Stuart Lindsay Distinguished Professor in Experimental Pathology I, member of the American Society of Clinical Investigator, American Association of Physicians and National Academy of Medicine. His research interests lie in basic and translational medical sciences in reproductive and population genetics. His current work focuses on implementing precision medicine tools across UCSF and evaluate its clinical significance and validity.

Talk
Genomics of Pregnancy Loss

Biography
Marina is an Associate Professor at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at UCSF. Prior to that she was a Senior Research Scientist at Pfizer after getting her PhD in Biomedical Informatics at Stanford. Dr. Sirota’s research experience spans over 10 years during which she has co-authored over 100 scientific publications. Her research interests lie in developing computational integrative methods and applying these approaches in the context of disease diagnostics and therapeutics. The Sirota laboratory is funded by NIA, NLM, NIAMS, March of Dimes and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. As a young leader in the field, she has been awarded the AMIA Young Investigator Award in 2017. Dr. Sirota also is the director of the AI4ALL program at UCSF, with the goal of introducing high school girls to applications of AI in biomedicine and serves as the director of outreach and advocacy at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute.

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Leveraging Molecular and Clinical Data to Improve Pregnancy Outcomes
Each year, 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 weeks of gestation) but the exact mechanism of spontaneous preterm birth is unknown. We are leveraging different types of molecular and clinical data combined with integrative computational approaches to define new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to prevent preterm birth.

Biography
Dr. Laird directs the Laboratory of Germline Development, Fitness, and Aging. Her basic research program is motivated by solving infertility, reproductive aging, and understanding the effects of prenatal exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and psychosocial stressors. She is involved in the intersection between science and society as deputy director of the UCSF P30 EaRTH Center (Environmental Research and Translation for Health). After a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Harvard, she entered stem cell biology as a PhD student at Stanford in the lab of Irving Weissman. She trained as a postdoc in developmental genetics with Kathryn Anderson at Sloan Kettering Institute. Her research has been recognized by an NIH New Innovator Award (DP2), an award from the W.M. Keck Foundation for Biomedical Research and she was recently appointed as a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator.

Biography
Dr. Ivana Maric is a Senior Research Scientist at the Prematurity Research Center at Stanford University, School of Medicine. Her research focus is on applying machine learning to improving maternal and perinatal health. She is a co-recipient of the 2021 Rosenkranz Prize and the 2013 IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award.

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Machine Learning for Early Prediction of Pregnancy-Related Outcomes
More than 800 women worldwide die from pregnancy-related causes every day. The complexity of adverse outcomes such as preeclampsia and preterm birth makes their early prediction difficult. We present a machine learning methodology that, by analyzing large omics and EHR data can identify a handful of predictive biomarkers ultimately leading to a simple diagnostic tool.

Biography
Nathan Robert Treff is the recipient of 8 Prize Paper Awards, and the 2013 New Investigator Award from ASRM. He has published over 120 peer reviewed papers in Reproductive Genetics and serves as a member of the ASRM Research Committee, and Senior Associate Editor of JARG, and Editor of Fertility and Sterility. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Washington State University and an HCLD in Molecular Diagnostics from ABB.

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Reducing polygenic disease risk through embryo selection
Current IVF practice involves selecting embryos for transfer based upon their appearance under a microscope. Contemporary genetic testing provides a new opportunity to prioritize embryos with the lowest risk of developing polygenic disease. This presentation will address several misconceptions surrounding the validity and ethics of polygenic risk scoring for embryo selection.

Biography
Nima Aghaeepour is an Associate Professor at Stanford University. His laboratory develops machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to study clinical and biological modalities in translational settings.  He is primarily interested in leveraging multiomics studies, wearable devices, and electronic health records to address global health challenges. His work is recognized by awards from numerous national and international organizations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the March of Dimes Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

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An AI-Driven Taxonomy for Prematurity
Despite significant investments, preterm birth has remained the single largest cause of death in children under 5 years of age. I will discuss a series of studies using state-of-the-art biological profiling, electronic health records, and artificial intelligence techniques which aim to enable an integrated precision-medicine approach to predict, prevent, and manage preterm births.

Biography
Serial entrepreneur with 11 years experience on a mission to unlock the Human Glycome for preventive health and longevity. Co-founder of several startups in the field of SaaS, travel and consumer health. Co-inventor of 1 patent in Women’s health diagnostics space. Fellow at Foresight Institute and co-founder of Women for Longevity.

Biography
As an adult endocrinologist, Dr. Ariel has a special interest in gender hormone related care. She is a Certified Menopause Practitioner through the North American Menopause Society, and is a member of the NAMS Educational Committee. Her clinical care focuses on the management of perimenopause and menopause, using a combination of evidence based medicine with a personalized approach.

Biography
Marina is an Associate Professor at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at UCSF. Prior to that she was a Senior Research Scientist at Pfizer after getting her PhD in Biomedical Informatics at Stanford. Dr. Sirota’s research experience spans over 10 years during which she has co-authored over 100 scientific publications. Her research interests lie in developing computational integrative methods and applying these approaches in the context of disease diagnostics and therapeutics. The Sirota laboratory is funded by NIA, NLM, NIAMS, March of Dimes and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. As a young leader in the field, she has been awarded the AMIA Young Investigator Award in 2017. Dr. Sirota also is the director of the AI4ALL program at UCSF, with the goal of introducing high school girls to applications of AI in biomedicine and serves as the director of outreach and advocacy at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute.

Talk
Novel Insights into Endometriosis through Precision Medicine
Endometriosis, a common, chronic, estrogen-dependent inflammatory disease, derives from uterine endometrium and is a major cause of pelvic pain and infertility. Diagnosis is hampered by complex disease presentation, and medical and surgical therapies are variably effective. Multi-omics approaches are key to developing novel diagnostics and therapeutics for this debilitating disorder and will be discussed herein.

Biography
Dr. Gaudilliere is an Associate Professor at Stanford University. Research in the Gaudilliere lab (Gaudillierelab.stanford.edu) combines high parameter mass cytometry (suspension and imaging mass cytometry) with other proteomics approaches to study how the human immune system responds and adapts to physiological or pathological stressors. Ongoing studies focus on several clinical scenarios including, 1) pregnancy, pregnancy complications and infertility (NICHD P01, Gates foundation and March of Dimes foundation), 2) immune mechanisms of surgical recovery and complications (NIGMS R35), 3) immune dysfunction and outcomes prediction in patients with COVID19.

Talk
Multiomic immune profiling approaches to predict labor onset
Drawing examples from recent translational studies, we will present a systems immunology approach leveraging multiplex single-cell and plasma proteomic technologies to study feto-maternal immune dynamics during pregnancy and identify mechanistic biomarkers for the prediction of labor onset in term and pre-term pregnancies.

Biography
Prior to joining Gameto as the VP of Cellular Engineering, Christian Kramme completed his PhD at Harvard Medical School working with the Sponsored Research Agreement of Gameto and Professor George Church’s lab. His thesis work “Multimodal investigation of human in vitro oogenesis” was based on high-throughput screening of transcription factors for generation of human germ cells, oocytes, and ovarian supporting cells to model genetic causes of infertility. Prior to Harvard, Christian received his B.S. in Molecular Genetics from UCLA, graduating Magna Cum Laude. While at UCLA, Christian conducted research on cannabinoids for migraine and chronic pain treatment. His work on synthetic biology and cell engineering for human oogenesis has yielded numerous patents and publications.

Biography
Dr. Sparks is a physician who specializes in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Clinical Genetics. She cares for individuals through the Prenatal Diagnosis Center and Fetal Treatment Center who are pregnant or considering pregnancy, particularly those that are higher risk due to fetal birth defects, fetal genetic diseases, maternal genetic or non-genetic diseases, and many other reasons. Dr. Sparks is the Program Director for the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship at UCSF and the Medical Director for the Prenatal Diagnosis Center at UCSF Benioff Childrens Physicians (UBCP). She is passionate about research, and is a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator as well as an Investigator for the UCSF Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine. Dr. Sparks work is focused on developing a precision-based approach to care for non-immune hydrops fetalis (NIHF) and other fetal anomalies, performing genomic sequencing and other tests to discover the breadth of underlying causes, refining clinical testing algorithms, and developing novel in utero treatment approaches.

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Prenatal genetic diagnosis: past, present, and future
This talk will provide an overview of current prenatal screening and diagnostic genetic testing options, discuss our current understanding of how genetic diseases manifest in utero, and describe future directions of prenatal screening, diagnostic testing, and novel in utero treatments for genetic diseases.

Biography
Dr. Stefanick's research, which has been widely disseminated nationally and internationally, has emphasized the role of lifestyle—especially exercise, diet, weight control, and menopausal hormone therapy—on chronic disease prevention, particularly heart disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and more recently, dementia. Her primary academic interests include sex/gender differences and the influence of sex hormones on human physiology and disease, menopause, and health promotion over the life course, including healthy aging. She offers courses on these subjects at Stanford, where she plays major leadership roles in the Women's Health at Stanford program, the Cardiovascular Institute's Women's Heart Health Program, and the Cancer Prevention and Control Program of the Stanford Cancer Center.

Biography
Dr. Aleksandar Rajkovic serves as the Medical Director and Chief of the Center for Genetic and Genomic Medicine (CGGM) that organizes, coordinates and oversees Clinical Genetics and Genomics Services across the UCSF Health System. He is also Stuart Lindsay Distinguished Professor in Experimental Pathology I, member of the American Society of Clinical Investigator, American Association of Physicians and National Academy of Medicine. His research interests lie in basic and translational medical sciences in reproductive and population genetics. His current work focuses on implementing precision medicine tools across UCSF and evaluate its clinical significance and validity.

Biography
Dr. Saltzman is the Chief Medical Officer of Ovia Health and is a practicing women's health physician. She is board certified in Internal Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at University of Pennsylvanias Pennsylvania Hospital and has served in leadership roles and in clinical and value-based care. In addition to her clinical expertise, Dr. Saltzman also has deep knowledge around leveraging data, RWE and AI/algorithms to improve clinical outcomes.

Talk
Predictive Risk For Fetal Health
Reduced cost and negative M/F outcomes (pre-term birth, NICU stays) through predictive risk algorithm and intervention through Ovia Health app

Biography
Dr. Strickland earned a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of Virginia and completed postdoctoral fellowship training in clinical chemistry at the University of Virginia Medical Center in 2018.Sydney is a diplomat of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry (ABCC),and a member of American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) and serves as a national co-discipline director of Biochemical Genetics. She serves on the board of the Pediatric-Maternal Fetal Division of AACC and as a committee member of the Evidence Based Laboratory Medicine Committee of AACC. She has authored more than 8 articles and abstracts published in such journals as Clinical Chemistry, Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine (JALM), Clinica Chimica Acta. She holds a certificate of qualification from New York State Department of Health in Biochemical Genetics and Fetal Defect Markers.

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Clinical Preeclampsia and Advances in Screening and Testing
"Value of early risk prediction, screening, & digital intervention in preterm birth avoidance" Speakers will discuss challenges of preterm birth, including preeclampsia, and highlight case studies from Ovia Health, a digital health intervention tool that can improve patient engagement, reduce preterm births and associated negative clinical and economic outcomes.

Biography
As Chief Medical Officer of Pfizer, Dr. Habtezion leads Pfizers Worldwide Medical & Safety organization responsible for ensuring that patients, physicians, and regulatory agencies are provided with information on the safe and appropriate use of Pfizer medications. She is a tenured and endowed Professor of Medicine, on a leave of absence from Stanford University who led translation research funded by multiple NIH, DOD, and foundation grants focused on understanding disease mechanisms in pancreatic and intestinal inflammatory diseases. She served as an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Medicine, a faculty member in Stanfords Immunology Ph.D. program, Neuroscience Institute, Cancer Institute, Maternal & Child Health Research Institute, interdisciplinary biosciences institute Bio-X, and faculty fellow at Stanfords ChEM-H. She is the American Pancreas Association President, Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association, an Allen Distinguished Investigator, elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians.

Biography
Jennifer Garrison, PhD, is Co-Founder and Director of the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality (GCRLE) and an Assistant Professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. She also holds appointments in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC. She is a passionate advocate for women’s health and is pioneering a new movement to advance science focused on female reproductive aging. Her lab studies the role of inter-tissue communication in systemic aging, and how changes in the complex interactions between the ovary and brain during middle-age lead to the onset of reproductive decline in females.

Biography
Dr. Grammer is an internationally recognized scientist and successful entrepreneur, having founded and managed AMPEL successfully for over 5 years. Dr. Grammer was elected to the class of 2021 for SIBF (Society of International Business Fellows), an organization of 1,400 individuals in 45 countries worldwide. She was also awarded a Virginia SBIG grant for AMPEL's first investment round. She is a second term board member of Virginia Bio.Before co-founding AMPEL in 2013, Dr. Grammer spent over 20+ years in genomics and managed more than 15 National Institute of Health (NIH) scientific teams and a highly productive NIH laboratory. Dr. Grammer received multiple awards for her team's work comparing genes expressed in patients compared with healthy individuals, including the prestigious NIH Director's Award as well as mentoring awards from the American Association of Immunologists. She has published over 75 articles on her scientific research.