Women have historically been denied the right to have a stake in the development of medical therapies targeting their health, and this barrier is ever more present in the world of reproductive bioengineering. Dr. Dina Radenkovic and Gameto aim to improve outcomes for female reproductive longevity by including women in research and development. This concept wasn’t considered integral during the development therapies in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s that are being utilized to combat reproductive aging and disease today.
Dr. Radenkovic is CEO and co-founder of Gameto. She’s a medical doctor and bioinformatics researcher that has leveraged her knowledge of medicine and her passion for women’s health to become a biotechnology entrepreneur focusing on improving the lives of women before, during, and after fertility. Dr. Radenkovic’s decorated and innovative career is highlighted by countless awards and accolades, as well as grants and relationships with respected organizations, and she’s included in Forbes’ 30 under 30 – Healthcare list for 2023 for her work.
Biologically, females experience a decline in fertility and overall reproductive health mid-life, and this scientific inevitability poses a significant barrier for the modern mother. The age of women choosing to begin their journey into motherhood has seen a significant shift, and the future of assisted fertility lies within the hands of women who aim to be financially, emotionally, and spiritually sound to provide a stable environment for children. In our modern times, this translates into an “older” mother, with data trending the age of women seeking fertility assistance to almost 36 years old.
Fertilo, Gameto’s fertility-improving platform, leverages biotechnology to transform the current IVF landscape to be less burdensome on women. This approach, which is unique to Gameto, allows for less hormone injections and a cost-effectiveness essential for modern families. IVF is traditionally expensive and coupled with potentially multiple rounds of invasive and taxing therapies, most women striving to have children later in life write off IVF as a pricey and painful pipe dream. Dr. Radenkovic strives to change this perception, and she is doing it with a robust team of scientists and doctors.
Traditional IVF methods follow the same process: eggs are collected from the ovaries from a prospective mother, fertilized by sperm in a lab, and replaced inside the uterus where, ideally, the fetus will grow and mature. This process is long, expensive, and physically taxing on women. In addition, there is no guarantee of success, so some couples must repeat this process numerous times. A key component of IVF is the need for the female to inject hormones and undergo invasive procedures to improve viability, however Gameto is taking a different approach to IVF research: improving the experience for women that is less invasive, expensive, and time-consuming.
By conducting research and clinically trialing therapies that reduce the stress on hopeful women seeking to expand their family at a more mature stage in their life, Gameto is rivaling other IVF companies by prioritizing the health and wellness of the mother. This concept stands alone within this sector, and by demonstrating the desire to improve IVF to focus on the woman’s experience is business savvy. Dr. Radenkovic and her team are creating a market that compliments women in our economy while including their voice in the development of products that target them.
After receiving additional funding of $17 million dollars in 2022, Gameto’s preclinical trials strive to make IVF safer and more efficient financially and clinically. Studies conducted showed “significantly improved maturation rates”, which, coupled with its emphasis on the female experience, make Fertilo a formidable presence in the fertility sphere. In addition to Fertilo, Dr. Radenkovic’s Gameto platform will include two additional therapeutic entities, Deovo and Ameno. The goal with this all-encompassing women’s health platform is to support women medically during every aspect of their lives.
Deovo is a branch of Gameto focusing on the understudied effects of pharmaceuticals on women. Using Fertilo’s inclusive model, Deovo will tackle the often-neglected dangers drugs on the market pose for women by strategically testing potential harm for women specifically. In addition, ovarian diseases are difficult to study and design solutions for. Gameto is developing products that could be used for ovarian toxicity screening, precision drug development, disease models, and epigenetic modeling across organ systems to improve how we approach difficult-to-replicate conditions.
Ameno focuses on a disregarded and multi-system effecting process that all women will inevitably go through: menopause. Much is not understood about why and how this natural process occurs, and the debilitating nature of menopause and its potential to severely impact the lives of women create a problem Dr. Radenkovic wants to solve. Designing therapeutic interventions that are safe improves patient outcomes, prevents unnecessary rehospitalizations, and gives women the ability to endure menopause gracefully. Menopause impacts mortality and therapies targeting its numerous complexities like dementia, osteoporosis, and depression have the potential to improve quality of life for aging women.
Infertility, ovarian disease, and debilitating age-related processes women face will soon consume the female medical space. Finding safe and reliable solutions that prioritize the experience of patients is paramount. As our large baby boomer generation continues to age an opportunity presents itself to expand on existing medical research to improve therapies for women while simultaneously being profitable, modern, and inclusive. Let’s face it: putting your targeted demographic first in your business model is smart! Dr. Radenkovic has married her passion for women’s health into a financially sound (and backed) biotechnology innovation; Gameto thinks far into the future and that forethought will undoubtedly produce results, and ample return.