Women’s Health for Everyone’s Health (WHEH)

Women's health remains an area of significant unmet need despite major advances in drug delivery, diagnostics, biomaterials, and precision medicine. Many conditions affecting women—including reproductive health, pregnancy, gynecologic diseases, cancer, infectious diseases, infertility, menopause, and healthy aging—require innovative technologies designed to address their unique physiological and clinical challenges.

The Women's Health for Everyone's Health Focus Group brings together researchers, clinicians, engineers, industry scientists, regulators, entrepreneurs, and trainees committed to advancing women's health through drug delivery science and translational research. Building on the success of previous CRS Women's Health symposia and annual meeting programming, the Focus Group provides a collaborative forum to accelerate innovation, foster interdisciplinary partnerships, and promote the translation of new technologies into clinical practice.

Our vision is to advance diagnostics, therapeutics, preventive strategies, and drug delivery technologies that improve the health and quality of life of women across all stages of life. Pregnancy remains a central area of focus, reflecting the principle that Women's Health for Everyone's Health recognizes maternal health as fundamental to the health of future generations.

The Focus Group promotes collaboration across academia, industry, healthcare, government, and non-profit organizations while encouraging equitable access to innovation and supporting research that addresses global health disparities.

Membership benefits include:

  • Scientific programming and technical sessions at the CRS Annual Meeting
  • Virtual webinars featuring leaders from academia, industry, clinical practice, and regulatory science
  • Networking opportunities that foster interdisciplinary collaborations
  • Mentorship and career development for trainees and early-career investigators
  • Professional development in entrepreneurship, commercialization, and technology translation
  • Recognition through annual Focus Group awards
  • Promotion of member achievements through CRS communications and social media
  • Collaboration with other CRS Focus Groups to advance women's health research

The WHEH Focus Group welcomes all CRS members interested in improving women's health through innovation, collaboration, and the advancement of drug delivery science.

The members of the Focus Group are expected to be paid members of the Controlled Release Society, independent of their membership category.

Leadership:

Co-Chair
Hagar Labouta, PhD.
Keenan Professor of Medical Discovery, Unity Health Toronto Associate Professor
University of Toronto Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering Institute, University of Toronto
Co-Chair
S. Rahima Benhabbour, MSc., PhD.
Professor- Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, UNC-NCSU Adjunct Professor
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy,Founder & Director of Anelleo, Inc. (AnelleO)
Secretary
Paola Luciani, PhD.
Professor- Head of the Pharmaceutical Technology Research Group Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Bern, Switzerland
Advisor
Gustavo F. Doncel, MD, PhD.
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Cell Biology
Old Dominion University Scientific and Executive Director, CONRAD
Academic Representative - Europe
Natasa Skalko-Basnet, PhD
Head of Drug Transport & Delivery Research Group
Department of Pharmacy, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Treasurer
Gülçin Arslan Azizoğlu, PhD.
Research Scientist II & Associate Director of the Prausnitz Lab
Georgia Institute of Technology
Training Lead
José das Neves, PhD
Researcher, i3S - Institute for Research and Innovation in Health
University of Porto, Portugal
Training Lead
Sravan Kumar Patel, PhD
Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics & Investigator
School of Pharmacy at University of Pittsburgh, and Magee Women's Research Institute
Academic Representative - Africa
Lamia Heikal, PhD.
Associate Professor in Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy
Alexandria University
Marketing Lead
Alexandra Teleki, PhD
Department of Pharmacy Science for Life Laboratory
Uppsala University, Sweden
Local Chapters Liaison
Cristina Fornaguera, PhD.
NanoTher Lab, Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS)
Universitat Ramon Llull (URL), Barcelona, Spain
YSC Committee Liaison
Soraia Pinto, PhD.
Postdoc, i3S, Institute for Research and Innovation in Health
University of Porto, Portugal
Industry Representative
Andrea C. del Valle PhD
Industry Representative
Rima Janusziewicz, PhD
Co-Founder & VP of Research
Anelleo, Inc. (AnelleO)
Trainee Representative
Luis Pérez Dávalos, M.D.
Ph.D. Candidate
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, Unity Health Toronto, Canada
Industry Representative
Samantha Knapp, PhD
Senior Scientist
Anelleo, Inc. (AnelleO)
Academic Representative - Australia
Tushar Kumeria, PhD
Associate Professor
UNSW, Australia
Social Media Lead
Neslihan Salar
PhD Candidate
Pharmaceutical Technology Research Group Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Bern, Switzerland
Trainee Representative
Qonita Anjani, PhD
Research Fellow
Queen’s University Belfast, UK
Trainee Representative
Nanditha Chundayil Kalathil, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Lampe Joint Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA