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UCSD School of Medicine researchers exploring the underlying mechanisms of human reproduction have been awarded a five-year, $5.3 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to establish a Center for the Study of Reproductive Biology and Disease. Pamela L. Mellon, Ph.D., professor of reproductive medicine and neuroscience at the UCSD School of Medicine, is program director of the Center. R. Jeffrey Chang, M.D., professor of reproductive medicine, is co-director.

As an NIH-designated Specialized Cooperative Center in Reproduction Research, the program is an expanded, enhanced outgrowth of the Specialized Population Research Center based at UCSD for 20 years, which has yielded many important findings about the mechanisms of reproductive disorders and infertility, leading to new treatments.

Women's health concerns such as infertility, polycystic ovary syndrome and problems related to menopause are among the areas of focus for the UCSD researchers. Studies range from laboratory-based investigations of cellular and molecular biology, to clinical studies that translate basic research findings into improvements in patient care.

"In recent years there has been growing awareness of women's health as a specialized area of research as well as clinical practice. This Center will allow us to build upon the important basic and clinical research that has been under way here for many years, with the goal of better understanding all aspects of reproduction, in order to develop and improve upon treatments for disease," said Mellon. "In addition, this Center will allow us to raise the profile of reproductive biology research in San Diego and increase communication and collaboration among experts in this field, to accelerate the pace of discovery."

UCSD has been at the forefront of these studies since the Rockefeller Foundation first funded a research program in reproductive endocrinology at the UCSD School of Medicine in 1970. A few years later, Samuel S.C. Yen, M.D., UCSD professor of reproductive medicine and W.R. Persons Chair in Reproductive Medicine, was awarded a Specialized Population Research Center grant by the NIH as an outgrowth of the work begun in the original program. Over the next two decades, Yen, who is an internationally respected reproductive endocrinologist, and his team discovered many of the critical hormonal pathways underlying the menstrual cycle, and identified abnormalities in hormonal regulation implicated in disruptions of reproductive health. His work has had a significant impact on the development of new treatments for infertility in women, in managing patients with hypothalamic amenorreah and polycystic ovary syndrome, and in treating endometriosis and uterine fibroid tumors.

"The new Center for Reproductive Biology and Disease and its investigators are dedicated to translating basic research into clinically relevant treatments for a host of disorders," said Yen, who continues as a co-investigator with the Center. "This cohesive, interactive team will address women's health and disease, from gene expression and cell function to the reproductive system. These endeavors will add new dimensions in the understanding of the immensely complex processes of human reproduction and disorders."

Mellon joined the UCSD faculty in 1992 after establishing her credentials as a leading molecular biologist whose focus is the hormonal regulation of gene expression in the brain--specifically, the endocrine system, which controls critical reproductive processes. She received the prestigious Ernst Oppenheimer Memorial Award of the Endocrine Society in 1997 for meritorious research.