Marissa Harmsen, PhD candidate, is an enthusiastic and driven researcher at Amsterdam UMC and the AR&D. Her doctoral research focuses on angiogenesis in adenomyosis and its relation to abnormal uterine bleeding and subfertility. With a background in Liberal Arts & Sciences, she embraced a multidisciplinary approach, collaborating with the angiogenesis laboratory of Arjan Griffioen. Her work includes a translational research project and an animal study investigating angiogenesis inhibitors as a potential treatment for adenomyosis. Marissa’s research has been recognized internationally, earning nominations for the Young Investigator Award (ISUOG 2020) and the Young Endoscopist Prize (ESGE 2022).

Information on the conference visit
Marissa Harmsen is attending the 39th Annual Meeting of ESHRE in Copenhagen, Denmark on 25-28 of June, 2023. In her visiting at the conference, Marissa will focus on experts working in the field of (reproductive) gynecology and share insights from her translational work on anti-angiogenic therapy on adenomyosis in mice.

Summary of Marissa’s research
The main focus of the research is the effect of anti-angiogenic therapy on adenomyosis in mice. It was found that commencing treatment at six weeks with angiogenesis inhibitor axitinib successfully reduced the severity of adenomyosis by approximately 50% at 9 weeks.

Takeaway from the conference
“I wanted to visit this congress to present my research project on anti-angiogenesis therapy in mice to treat adenomyosis to a wider public. The research field of adenomyosis is in the Netherlands mostly addressed by benign gynecology specialists. Since it has an impact on fertility and there is no good therapy to improve the condition or the fertility issues, I thought it was very valuable to bring this topic under the attention of medical specialists that work in the field of fertility as well. In addition to presenting my own work, I naturally learned a lot from attending lectures and research presentations from other experts. It is inspiring to see wat other groups are working on. Moreover, some ideas or research methods could be interesting to explore in our own research project as well. Lastly, I appreciated the network opportunities at the congress. Especially the Dutch lunch and a dinner with all researchers from the Amsterdam UMC were events where I had some inspiring talks.”

Outlook for the future and AR&D
Adenomyosis, the condition Marissa and her team trying to treat, is currently of great interest in the field of fertility, since an increasing amount of evidence is showing that adenomyosis accounts for a considerate proportion of the reasons why women suffer from infertility. To be able to reduce the severity of disease has great potential and they believe that experts in the field will be very interested to learn more about this.

For more research and contact information visit here.