Harris’ professional journey began when she worked in a hospital as an emergency room technician after her undergraduate years. At that time, she was considering pursuing a career as a physician. As Harris saw people return to the ER over time because of chronic health conditions, she wondered whether she should shift her focus to preventing disease rather than waiting until a person developed a serious illness to attempt to cure it.

She credits two critical early career mentors, Kathryn Terry, ScD, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Stacey Missmer, ScD, at University of Michigan Medical School, for helping her to hone her focus on gynecological health.

“They just really got me excited about those areas [of research],” Harris said. “And I think because of their strong mentorship, I was able to learn more about those conditions. They became two of my postdoc mentors that I still work with today. Having really quality mentorship makes science exciting.”

Harris’ most recent research illustrates her ability to make critical connections between lifestyle and health outcomes. One study looked at the link between healthy eating and the incidence of endometriosis, a chronic condition in which tissue similar to that normally found only in the lining of the uterus (the endometrium) grows outside the uterus, leading to potentially debilitating symptoms including pelvic pain and in some cases, infertility. The condition affects an estimated 190 million women of reproductive age worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Harris’ study showed that people who scored highly on the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, an 11-point list developed at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that identifies eating patterns most likely to be associated with long-term health, had significantly less risk for developing endometriosis over their lifetimes. 

Harris pointed out that endometriosis is a condition that needs much more awareness. Currently there is no non-invasive diagnostic test which would allow for earlier diagnosis, and the average delay between the onset of symptoms and an accurate diagnosis is seven years. 

“It’s concerning that people would have to wait that long and be in pain for that long before getting an actual diagnosis,” Harris said.

Other studies Harris has led examined potential links between infertility and certain types of ovarian cancer; dietary links to early onset of female puberty; and potential links between dietary habits and premenopausal breast cancer. She notes that one reason she felt compelled to study ovarian cancer is that it is less discussed in the cancer advocacy community than other forms of cancer. 

“Ovarian cancer is similar to endometriosis and fibroids in that people are not as aware of it,” Harris noted. “Sadly, this is because people aren’t surviving ovarian cancer like they’re surviving breast cancer.” (The five-year survival rate for breast cancer is over 90%, while for ovarian cancer it is 51.6%, according to the National Cancer Institute.) 

“So there’s not the [same] patient advocacy community, which is one of the reasons I really feel passionate about ovarian cancer research,” she said.

Harris also stressed the importance of studying how lifestyle factors, such as diet and other factors, could help patients manage their health, as long as the data supported these recommendations.

“It’s great to have traditional medical care,” for these illnesses, Harris said. “But for conditions that are complex, like endometriosis, where a person with the condition can have some autonomy to address symptoms themselves, I think that is super important.” Harris stressed that evidence-based lifestyle research is critical for understanding the lifestyle factors that lead to positive outcomes. “We don’t want to recommend things to people that aren’t going to help them.”

Endowed chairs provide sustained research support

With a gift to endow a faculty chair, visionary donors empower scientists to pursue transformative ideas. Generous supporters have endowed more than 50 chairs at Fred Hutch to date, honoring faculty members and giving them flexible funding for innovative research. Endowment gifts are critical to long-term sustainability and are a cornerstone of the Campaign for Fred Hutch, which is bringing together the Fred Hutch community to radically increase the pace and scale of discovery.

“We are deeply grateful to the Bus family for their extraordinary generosity in endowing this chair,” said Fred Hutch President and Director Thomas J. Lynch Jr., MD, holder of the Raisbeck Endowed Chair. “This transformational gift will support new research in areas that affect women’s health throughout their lives, with the hope of alleviating symptoms of life-altering conditions like endometriosis and finding new ways to treat gynecologic and breast cancers.”

Harris, whose research covers a wide span of conditions affecting women from early adolescence to later adulthood, will be able to pursue her research secure in the knowledge that financial support will be ongoing, thanks to the Bus family’s endowment. It is a gift that she hopes will lead to wide-ranging breakthroughs in women’s health.

“Gynecological health is ever present,” Harris said. “What I really want from my research [career] is for everybody to have a high quality of life, and to live their lives to the fullest.”