Dr. Bruce Lessey
University Medical Group, USA
Dr. Bruce A. Lessey is a physician-scientist with a long standing interest in basic and translational
research on endometrial function. He received his PhD studying steroid receptor biology at Colorado
State University (1976-1980), with an interest that expanded to human research with Kathryn Horowitz at
University of CO School of Medicine (1981-1984) on breast cancer research and the endometrium at
Duke University (1984-1988) with Dr. Kenneth McCarty, Jr.. He published one of the first studies on
immunohistochemical localization of steroid receptors through the menstrual cycle in 1988 demonstrating
the decline in epithelial estrogen and progesterone receptors at the time of implantation in humans. He
was trained in Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he published the first
in a series of comprehensive studies on integrins in the endometrium and established the anb3 integrin
as one of the best-characterized biomarkers of endometrial receptivity and a diagnostic test for
endometriosis. The current focus continues on endometrial receptivity and how endometriosis contributes
to infertility even in mild forms of the disease. He is working with colleagues at the USC SOM in Columbia
and collaborators at the University of North Carolina to examine the immunology of endometriosis
investigating the mechanisms by which inflammation contributes to the pathophysiology of both new and
recurrent disease. These studies will likely help in the development of therapeutics that target these
inflammatory pathways.