Serdar E. Bulun, M.D.

One of our editorial board members, Dr. Serdar Bulun, has developed this issue on the important topic of progesterone resistance and its role in the endometrium and endometriosis. Dr. Bulun previously served as guest editor for an issue devoted to aromatase. He is one of my former fellows in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern and has gone on to a successful career as a physician scientist.

Serdar E. Bulun, M.D., is the George H. Gardner Professor of Clinical Gynecology and the director of the Division of Reproductive Biology Research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He graduated from medical school at Istanbul University and completed his residency training in obstetrics/gynecology at the State University of New York at Buffalo and his subspecialty fellowship in reproductive endocrinology-infertility in UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he subsequently completed an American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Fellowship in steroid biochemistry under Evan Simpson's mentorship. From 1999 to 2003, he served as the director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2003 Dr. Bulun established a new Division of Reproductive Biology Research at Northwestern University. Five independent reproductive investigators now work at this division and focus on steroid hormone–related pathology and reproductive disorders. Since 1991, Dr. Bulun has made substantial contributions to our understanding of the role of aromatase and progesterone receptors in the pathophysiology of endometriosis, uterine leiomyoma, and breast cancer. Based on these laboratory findings, his team subsequently introduced aromatase inhibitors into the treatment of endometriosis. Among other noted achievements, he was the first to describe the genetic basis of the hereditary “aromatase excess syndrome,” characterized by prepubertal breast development and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism caused by activating germline mutations of the aromatase gene. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers on the biochemical, molecular, and clinical aspects of steroid hormone production and action in endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and breast cancer. Dr. Bulun was elected a member of the Society of Gynecological Investigation (SGI); the physician scientists' honor society, American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI); and also the American Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (AGOS). Dr. Bulun was a regular member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Integrative and Clinical Endocrinology and Reproduction (ICER) Study Section and served as an ad hoc reviewer on many others. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and Steroids. He is currently an editorial board member of the Endocrine Reviews and Seminars in Reproductive Medicine. He also serves as the U.S. editor of the Journal of Molecular Endocrinology.