Optimization of an ex vivo endometriosis model for patient-specific therapeutic applications; The Decade-Long Journey: Actor-Network Theory and the Systemic Roots of Endometriosis Misdiagnosis 7 views

In my technical project my team and I helped develop and optimize a hydrogel-based platform to study endometriosis. This disease is one with high patient variability, so we set out to develop a method in which patient-derived endometriosis lesions could remain viable for a month in culture, enabling researchers to diagnose and study patient-specific characteristics and therapeutics. To gain knowledge on the patient experience my science, technology, and society (STS) research examines the key builders and actors within the research-clinical network to better understand why the average diagnosis time for endometriosis is 6.8 years (Fryer et al., 2025). In our technical project, my team and I employed the use of hydrogels, a biomaterial that is widely used in research settings due to its tunability and biocompatibility, to preserve the viability of patient-derived endometriosis lesions. The platform we developed isolates these patient lesions, slices them into precision cut sections, and embeds them in hydrogels, resulting in a highly replicable system that maintains tissue viability and structure over the course of a month. Without this platform, tissues only remain viable for 5-7 days which limits the experiments you are able to conduct on the tissue to understand disease development and healing. Throughout our project we also examine various hydrogel components including peptides and polymers to determine the optimal composition for cell retention in the endometriosis lesions over time and thus, viability. By the end we have developed and optimized a promising platform that can help researchers address the patient variability seen in endometriosis through the study of lesions over the course of a month. My STS research paper aims to contextualize my technical project by centering the disease of endometriosis to one patient’s experience. In my work I draw on actor-network theory (ANT)—a social theory developed by Bruno Latour that describes systems as heterogeneous networks of human and non-human actors built to solve a problem or accomplish a goal (Latour, 1999; Law, 1999)—to define and explore the research-clinical network in the context of one endometriosis patient. For this research I investigated the case of Lexi Frankel, an endometriosis patient who experienced a diagnostic delay of 10 years. Through my work I found that the builders and actors who encompass the research-clinical network displayed weak problematization and an incomplete formation of the “black-box” ultimately leading to Frankel’s diagnostic delay (Frankel, 2022). Working on these two projects simultaneously reminded me of the importance behind what my technical project originally set out to do. Technical research projects are exhausting and often met with failures. There were many points throughout the academic year that my motivation to complete the project plummeted, however, because of my STS research, I was reminded about why the work I was doing mattered. Lexi Frankel, and cases like hers helped to reignite my motivation and improved my overall quality of work.

BS (Bachelor of Science)

Endometriosis ; Biomaterials ; Actor-Network Theory ; ex-vivo

School of Engineering and Applied Science Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering Technical Advisor: Daniel Abebayehu STS Advisor: Ben Laugelli Technical Team Members: Gabriela Ros, Samantha Medford, Haley Wood

English

All rights reserved by the author (no additional license for public reuse)

2026-05-08