People
Ruth Lathi, MD, is the Director of Research for Fertility and Reproductive Health and founder of the Stanford multispecialty Recurrent Pregnancy Loss program. Dr. Lathi first became interested in research while working with Dr. Eric Lander at MIT, investigating genetic causes of hypertension. This experience taught her the power of collaborative work and innovative genetic techniques in discovering mechanisms of disease. Dr. Lathi received her medical degree from UCSF, completed her OB/GYN training at Baylor college of Medicine, and fellowship and Stanford. She is a founding member and past president of the Early pregnancy special interest group of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, and a Past president of the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society. Currently a Professor in the Department of OB/GYN, her clinical work focuses on patients with reproductive disorders such as infertility and pregnancy loss.
Her research focuses on
- Reproductive genetics and the role of preimplantation genetic testing of embryos
- Recurrent pregnancy loss
- Pregnancy health after infertility and assisted reproduction
- Impact of environmental factors on fertility and miscarriage
Lusine Aghajanova is a Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility specialist at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford. She is passionate about all aspects of fertility treatment and helping women with reproductive of hormonal problems. As a physician-scientist, she has long standing experience in endometrial research, with over 50 publications on the topic. She is interested in investigating the effect of endometrial pathology on infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss including biochemical and clinical miscarriages, and pregnancy complications.
Dr. Alvero is currently the President of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology, the national organization of fertility specialists. Dr. Alvero’s clinical interests include IVF, polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and robotic surgery. Dr. Alvero’s research interests include non-invasive evaluation of embryo quality, PCOS, genetic causes of infertility and pregnancy loss, cost-effectiveness analysis, and the role of critical thinking in medical education. A fluent Spanish-speaker, Dr. Alvero is also dedicated to research and improving the health of the Latinx community.
Genetics Counselor
Alleigh Boyd, MS, CGC is a certified genetic counselor who specializes in reproductive genetics at the Stanford Fertility. She received her MS in genetic counseling from the University of Oklahoma, Health Sciences Center in 2015. At Stanford, she works with patients who utilize preconception carrier screening and preimplantation genetic testing. Her research interests include preimplantation genetic testing, recurrent miscarriage, and genetic fertility testing.
Dr. Heather Byers is a board-certified medical geneticist with expertise in rare disease & clinical genetics. Her interests are in improving the diagnosis and management of patients with unmet clinical need, particularly in perinatal genetics. Heather is a founding member and the Medical Director of the DSD clinic at Stanford Children's Health, working with >20 physicians across eight specialties to best diagnose and treat patients with this group of rare and complex conditions. Heather has participated in multi-institutional clinical collaborations leading to the discovery and delineation of multiple novel genetic syndromes. Heather’s current research ultimately aims to improve the lives of children and couples wanting to start a healthy family. This includes investigating underlying genetic etiologies of pregnancy loss and infertility, delineating fetal phenotypes for earlier prenatal diagnosis and assessing clinical utility of molecular technology.
Dr. Dosiou is a Clinical Professor in the Division of Endocrinology. She specializes in the care of patients with thyroid disease, with particular interest and expertise in the care of thyroid patients around the time of conception and pregnancy. She has worked closely with the Stanford REI physicians for many years to optimize thyroid status in women with recurrent pregnancy loss. She has published on the topic of cost-effectiveness of screening for thyroid disease in pregnancy and has served as a member of the American Thyroid Association's 2017 Clinical Guidelines on the Management of Thyroid Disease in Pregnancy.
Michael L. Eisenberg, MD, is an Associate Professor of Urology and Obstetrics & Gynecology and the Director of Men’s Health and Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Eisenberg serves as an associate editor of Fertility and Sterility and Andrology and as an ad hoc referee for dozens of leading medical journals and has himself authored numerous peer-reviewed articles. His laboratory seeks to understand the association between a father’s reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes (e.g. pregnancy loss, preterm birth).
Anna Girsen, MD, PhD, has over 15 years of experience in the Women’s Health science field including research operations manager, clinical researcher, and primary care physician positions. As the Associate Director of Research Development and Strategy, she is the operational lead for the Obstetrics & Gynecology research overseeing the planning of short- and long-term goals and deliverables for the department research. In her work, she supports the Obstetrics & Gynecology faculty and trainees in their groundbreaking research efforts by making sure they have the infrastructure, knowledge, and resources to conduct the research for the betterment of Women’s and Reproductive Health.
Alma brings a wealth of experience in the area of clinical research to REI. She was first hired at Stanford School of Medicine in 1998 to conduct a randomized clinical trial on women’s physical activity and nutrition and with that she discovered her passion to improve women’s health through clinical research and has stayed in that career path for over twenty years. She has done clinical research in the areas of family planning, HIV-AIDS, and gynecology-oncology. Alma joined Reproductive, Endocrinology and Infertility Division in January 2020. Alma enjoys trail running and reading on her spare time.
Sun Kim is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Gerontology and Metabolism. She specializes in the care of patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Dr. Kim has worked closely with the Reproductive Endocrinology Group to help women improve their health, lose weight, and maximize their chances for a successful pregnancy. In addition, she actively collaborates with Dr. Lathi and her Reproductive Endocrinology Group to study the metabolic effects of obesity on pregnancy outcomes, including on recurrent pregnancy loss, and to evaluate the benefits of weight loss to decrease pregnancy loss.
Dr. Murugappan's research interests include recurrent pregnancy loss and short- and long-term health outcomes of infertile women. Her work examining severe maternal morbidity among infertile women is funded by a 2020 seed grant from the Stanford Women's Health and Sex Differences in Medicine (WHSDM) Center. Beginning in the fall of 2020, Dr. Murugappan will be the medical director of the REI Biobank, a repository of excess embryos and reproductive tissue generated during IVF treatment as well as excess human tissue obtained from research or clinical care for future research.
Dr. Simard is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health whose work spans small clinical studies to large population-based register and administrative data work. Her research is largely focused on reproductive outcomes in patients with complex chronic autoimmune conditions including systemic lupus. In partnership with Stanford colleagues, Dr. Simard found that women using hydroxychloroquine in lupus pregnancy had less preeclampsia and less preterm delivery but is expanding on this work now. Working with colleagues in Sweden, Canada, and the United States, Dr. Simard is evaluating the role of hydroxychloroquine in preventing preeclampsia and reducing preterm delivery, and working with patients and providers to identify barriers to treatment adherence. In addition to this substantive research, Dr. Simard is working to understand how to capture and identify pregnancy loss and how to account for these competing risks and selection bias methodologically.
Dr. Virginia D. Winn MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of Perinatal Biology. She is a physician-scientist board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) with a PhD in Biochemistry. Dr. Winn is an expert in human placental development and preeclampsia pathogenesis. She leads a basic and translational research program with the mission of improving maternal and child health while training the next generation of perinatal researchers. Dr. Winn has had continuous funding from foundations and NIH since 2001 and is currently the multi-PI on several large NIH grants examining the link between preeclampsia and conception method or development of later cardiovascular disease (midlife and older). Dr. Winn has several collaborations with Dr. Lathi and the recurrent pregnancy loss program, including studying the outcomes of mosaic embryo transfer, pre-eclampsia risk in the absence of a corpus luteum, and genetic determinants of early placental development and miscarriage.