Prof Rebecca Campbell, Prof Greg Anderson, and their respective groups, have just been awarded HRC project grants to investigate potential therapies of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
PCOS is the leading cause of anovulatory infertility in women and is still poorly understood and there is no cure.
Both groups now have received $1,200,000 each for the next three years to find ways how women diagnosed with PCOS can overcome their infertility.
Prof Campbell's project will investigate how the high circulating levels of 'male-typical' androgen hormones act on the brain and cause reproductive dysfunction. They will also test the impact of clinically relevant anti-androgen therapies on the mechanisms involved with PCOS pathology. This work will provide valuable new knowledge on the understanding of PCOS pathogenesis and treatment.
Prof Anderson's team will take a more practical approach and try to find ways to temporarily override PCOS mechanisms so women can become pregnant. PCOS is associated with excessive levels of luteinising hormone which causes some of the reproductive dysfunctions. The team will try to curb these mechanisms, so ovarian function is temporarily restored and the women can get pregnant.