Considering the menstrual cycle in nanomedicine design

Maria Poley completed her PhD in biochemical engineering at the Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa, Israel), initially focusing on pancreatic cancer. However, an observation in magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of female mice led her to study how nanomedicine is distributed in the uterus and ovaries. Maria and contributors in the Schroeder Lab found that physiological changes that occur throughout the menstrual cycle affect the biodistribution of nanoparticles in the reproductive system, impacting the efficacy of chemotherapeutics at different stages of the cycle [1].  It was not a legal requirement to include women in clinical trials between 1986 and 1993, despite...