Valentina Vongrad

Valentina Vongrad and her team have developed a novel treatment that holds the potential of eliminating the diseased endometriotic tissue in affected women. The new treatment speaks to an unmet medical need where current treatments are limited in their efficacy and palliative in nature. The novel treatment has an extraordinary potential to increase the quality of life of millions of women.

Endometriosis (invasive ectopic endometrial tissue outside the uterus) is a painful, chronic, infertility causing and recurrent disease affecting 10% of women of reproductive age. There is an unmet medical need for non-hormonal treatments of endometriosis that are safe and effective. The debilitating pain of the disease forces 80% of US women to be prescribed opioids to control the pain, and 20% eventually remove their uterus completely to get rid of the pain.

The goal to achieve during the UZH Entrepreneur Fellowship is to reach a frozen design of the lead asset, in-depth in-vivo validation, and further to acquire necessary skills and connections for first-in-human trials.

Affiliation: Brigitte Leeners

Start date: 03/2022