Patankar receives grant from Meriter Foundation for endometriosis research

Congratulations to Manish Patankar, PhD, director of the Division of Reproductive Sciences, who received a 2026 Research and Education grant from the UnityPoint Health Meriter Foundation! 

The grant will fund the project “Targeting metabolic vulnerabilities: a non-hormonal approach for the treatment of the chronic reproductive disorder, endometriosis.” Patankar and the research team will investigate whether a common anti-malarial medication decrease viability of endometrial cells, which will be derived from surgical samples obtained from patients with endometriosis. 

The research team will include Soma Banerjee, PhD, postdoctoral trainee in the Department of Ob-Gyn; Michael Berube, PhD, postdoctoral researcher in the Virumbrales-Muñoz Lab; and AJ Fagan, PhD candidate in the UW–Madison Department of Statistics. The grant will support their work for 12 months. 

Congratulations, all!