Two Yale Scientists Receive 2025 WHAM Edge Awards

Last week, WHAM (Women’s Health Access Matters) announced the 10 recipients of the 2025 WHAM Edge Awards. Two Yale postdoctoral fellows, Domenica Berardi, PhD, and Na-Young Rho, PhD, have been awarded $25,000 grants for their projects investigating colorectal cancer in women and ovarian aging respectively.

The WHAM Edge Awards provide critical early funding to emerging scientists studying sex-based differences in diseases that impact women differently, disproportionately, or exclusively across four key areas: autoimmune disease, brain health, cancer, and heart health, as well as novel approaches to women’s health conditions and innovative methodologies.

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although more men are diagnosed overall, women are more likely to develop right sided colorectal cancer, a subtype that occurs in the right side of the colon and is linked to poorer outcomes, including reduced survival. Importantly, postmenopausal women are facing rising rates of this type of colon cancer, suggesting that estrogen, particularly the hormone 17β-estradiol, may play a protective role.

To explore these processes, Berardi will use female-only cell lines to examine how estrogen influences divergent colorectal cancer subtypes, shedding light on why right sided colon cancer disproportionately affects postmenopausal women in the lab of Caroline Johnson, PhD, at Yale School of Public Health. In addition, Berardi will study how estrogen may protect against certain types of colon cancer that are more common and deadly in postmenopausal women.

“While studying colorectal cancer in the Johnson Laboratory, it has become evident that there is a sex disparity in the metabolism of colon cancer. This award is important as it enables me to fill a knowledge gap related to women’s biology during colon cancer, especially after menopause,” says Berardi. “This work brings visibility to women’s health research in colorectal cancer, highlighting the importance of studying it not as an extension of men’s cancer, but recognizing its peculiarities due to existing biological differences. I’m hopeful this project will result in lasting change.”

"I was so pleased to see Dr. Berardi’s research recognized by WHAM. She is an exceptionally talented scientist, and her innovative strategies to address this gap in women’s health and colorectal cancer will make a large impact on the field," said Johnson.

As a woman’s ovaries age, her ability to have children declines, while the risk for miscarriage increases. Some women experience early ovarian failure, leading to early menopause and higher risks for developing bone loss, heart disease, and memory problems.

Therefore, ovarian aging is not just a fertility issue but a major women’s health concern. Despite the profound effect of ovarian aging on women worldwide, we still don’t know exactly why it happens or if it can be prevented. In this study, Rho, working in the lab of Kutluk Oktay, MD, PhD, at Yale School of Medicine, will examine chemical changes, called methylation, in the BRCA1 gene to identify markers of ovarian aging. Then she will apply CRISPR technology, a gene-editing tool, to see if these changes can be reversed

“My research has focused on understanding why women’s eggs age and specifically, how changes in the epigenome — the molecular “software” that controls our genes — may cause the decline in DNA repair that leads to reduced fertility and earlier menopause. Ovarian aging affects every woman, yet we still do not fully understand why it happens or how to reverse it,” says Rho. “This research is deeply meaningful as it addresses a critical gap in women’s health research. For decades, we have focused on treating infertility, but not on preventing or delaying the biological causes behind it.”

"Women's life span has doubled within the last 150 years, yet the menopausal age has not changed. This results in women spending decades of life with consequences of ovarian aging which includes infertility, menopause-complications and altered quality of life,” says Oktay. “After my laboratory's discovery of declining DNA repair in oocytes as the main cause of ovarian aging, we are now poised to understand the mechanisms behind that decline. Dr. Rho is an extremely talented, hard-working, and dedicated scientist who will take on this project through sophisticated single cell and CRISPR technologies developed in our laboratory.”

The WHAM Edge Awards provide funding for one-year projects.