Krina Zondervan

Krina Zondervan is Professor of Reproductive & Genomic Epidemiology and Head of the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford. She is Co-Director of the Oxford Endometriosis CaRe Centre, with a mission to integrate world-class evidence-based clinical care with an internationally collaborative programme of basic, clinical and translational research into endometriosis and related symptoms.

For more than 25 years, her research has focused on understanding the causes of common women's health conditions, in particular endometriosis, through large-scale epidemiological and genetic studies, in order to improve diagnostic and treatment options. Prof Zondervan has led a number of large global research initiatives, including the International Endometriosis Genomics Consortium conducting the largest genetic studies of endometriosis to date, the latest study involving more than 60,000 women from 25+ centres, that have gained new insights into the biological heterogeneity of endometriosis and provided new avenues for treatment (e.g. Nature Genetics 2011 & 2012; Nature Communications 2017; Science Translational Medicine 2021). She also led the Global Study of Women’s Health, investigating the impact of endometriosis in 10 countries across 5 continents, which was highlighted as one of 25 historic papers in last 75 years by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Together with Prof Stacey Missmer (Michigan State University/Harvard University), she founded and leads the WERF Endometriosis Phenome and Biobanking Harmonisation Project (EPHect) that has standardised evidence-based data and biological sample collection in endometriosis research globally. The freely available tools have been adopted by more than 45 global endometriosis research centres to date, facilitating many new collaborative studies to study the disease.

Prof Zondervan has served as Board Member of various charity and grants advisory committees in the field of women’s health, including the World Endometriosis Society, World Endometriosis Research Foundation, Wellbeing of Women UK, and the ESHRE Special Interest Group in Endometriosis and Endometrial Disorders. She is among the most highly cited authors in reproductive sciences, and in 2013 was recognised as Outstanding Female Scientist (AcademiaNet, Wellcome Trust nomination). In 2019 she was awarded the title of Honorary Skou Professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, for her collaborative contributions to research in women’s health.