# What is Endometriosis? Deep Phenotyping to Advance Diagnosis and Treatment

> **NIH NIH R01** · MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $48,740

## Abstract

Endometriosis is a debilitating and often incurable condition characterized by the presence of endometrial-
like glands and stroma thriving outside of the uterine cavity. The condition affects approximately 10–15% of
all women of reproductive age. The most common symptom of endometriosis is pain, with endometriosis
diagnosed in approximately 83% of all chronic pelvic pain (CPP) cases in the US. Current classification and
staging systems for endometriosis have not found clinically useful associations with the level or chronicity of
pain. Approximately 30% of women with endometriosis-associated pain (EAP) continue to experience
persistent pain after surgery to treat the condition, possibly explained by central sensitization (CS). The parent
grant, “What is Endometriosis? Deep Phenotyping to Advance Diagnosis and Treatment (WisE),” (PI:
Missmer; R01 HD094842; Project dates 08/01/18 to 04/30/23) aims to identify unique classifications of
patients with endometriosis that will inform non-invasive diagnostics, prognosis given current treatments, and
novel treatment pathways. This Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research
application is requested to formally add Ms. Claire Lunde to the WisE team and support her research time
during her final nine months as a doctoral student at the University of Oxford. The proposed mentoring team
also includes Professor Vincent and Dr. Sieberg; both are Co-Is on the parent award and are Ms. Lunde’s
current Ph.D. supervisors. As the parent R01 aims to discover informative subtypes of endometriosis and
disease classifications, the candidate will supplement this research by analyzing existing sensory data
(n=108) conducted on the same sample to further subdivide endometriosis participants by low and high CS.
The most relevant aims of the parent award are Aims 3 and 4, which entail characterizing disease phenotypes
by symptom presentation and heterogeneity of phenomics data for patients with endometriosis. The parent
R01 uses harmonized medical records, participant data, blood, urine, and tissue samples for a diverse cohort
of adolescents and adult females (n~2600). Integrating Quantitative Sensory Testing and phenomics data
will further identify differences in functional pain characteristics between endometriosis participants and pain-
free controls and provide a comprehensive set of objective patient phenotypes complementing the rich self-
reported phenotype data. These results will elucidate the pain profiles in the clinical presentations (including
pain thresholds and psychological variables) and if there is an association with outcomes after interventions
(e.g., surgery). This will also allow for defining strategies for patient selection for future trials of novel
therapeutics targeting these mechanisms. This critical research will expand upon our current collaborative
research by enhancing our understanding of the impact of centralized pain on patients with endometriosis
through establishing ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10622684
- **Project number:** 3R01HD094842-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Asgerally T. Fazleabas
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $48,740
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-08-01 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10622684

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10622684, What is Endometriosis? Deep Phenotyping to Advance Diagnosis and Treatment (3R01HD094842-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10622684. Licensed CC0.

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