Dr Emma Wade

Research

Emma Wade is a Sir Charles Hercus Research Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women’s Health. She completed her undergraduate degree in genetics from the University of York, in 2010. As part of her degree she spent time in a rare-disease genetics lab in Edinburgh. After graduating, she worked for two years at the University of Manchester on eye disease genetics, before relocating to Dunedin, NZ in 2013 to undertake a PhD in rare, skeletal disorders with Prof. Stephen Robertson at the University of Otago.

After time as a post-doctoral researcher and a research fellow in the Laboratory for Genomic medicine, working on the molecular mechanisms of rare, connective tissue disorders, she was awarded the Sir Charles Hercus Fellowship to support her work on rare genetic contributors to common connective tissue disorders, focused mainly on pelvic organ prolapse. Emma is focused on what rare disorders can teach us about common disease and how discoveries in the rare space can lead to novel treatments for diseases of aging, especially for women.

Her research on pelvic organ prolapse is focused on why some women experience prolapse at a young age, and whether there is a genetic factor involved. She is recruiting for a genetics study here in Aotearoa, and is enrolling participants with a vagina, both those who have both experienced a prolapse and those who have not. Please get in contact if you are interested in participating. Her research is also making use of large international health and genetic datasets.