In celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11th February), we spoke to Laura María Quesada Ojeda about her work in women’s health and the current research she is supporting. What is your role?I am a research technician in the EXPPECT team here at the University of Edinburgh. My main job is to organise and process the samples from all of our different clinical studies. The project that I'm funded by is ENDO1000, which is the big and exciting endometriosis study.I help students, postdocs and PIs within our group, which is quite big. I feel very lucky to be able to collect samples, not only from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, but also to be able to go to some surgeries and collect samples there. It is a part of my job that I'm really enjoying because it's quite novel to me.What is your background and how did you get involved with ENDO1000?I am from Spain. I am from the Canary Islands, nice and hot, exactly like Edinburgh! And I came to Edinburgh for my undergrad on Reproductive Biology.As an undergrad, I was sat in one of Andrew Horne’s lectures. He was talking about this disease, endometriosis, that I had never heard of before. I thought, “Oh my gosh, this is so intriguing. There’s so many things to discover.” Laura in the EXPPECT lab I remember being very interested then. I wanted more lab experience and decided to stay for the Masters by Research in Reproductive Sciences. One of my projects was with the EXPPECT group and I got so passionate about it. I wanted to learn more. They were speaking about ‘the big study starting’ [ENDO1000] and now I couldn’t be happier to be part of the ENDO1000 team working as a technician.What do you enjoy about working here?The environment in the air is great. You have all this different research going on, people like speaking and collaborating with each other all the time, and it’s a great, supportive environment for early careers.I feel that specifically here, there's an amazing group of researchers working on reproductive health. There’s growing importance in improving quality of life. Before there wasn't that much interest in reproduction per se, because there were other worries. But now we are starting to get more involved in reproductive biology as it is a big part of quality of life and life in general. It’s such an intriguing field where there's still so much left to know.There are so many different roles in our group and you always feel supported in different aspects of your project. You have clinical managers, lab management, researchers and PIs. I think what makes me feel so grateful about the group is the fact that you have a really nice interface between clinicians and scientists, which makes it really strong and special. Clinical knowledge fuses with the science and everything that you do has a meaning, clinically.What’s your experience of working in women's health, or as a woman in science yourself?I am just so proud of being a woman in science. I feel so grateful and thankful to be part of an amazing team of women that are pushing science forward, especially in endometriosis, which is so much needed. There are so many women here that are so passionate and have amazing research in reproductive biology.Women's health has for a long time been my interest. I did my fourth-year dissertation in how chemotherapy affects the foetal ovary. During my Masters, I did my first project on the use of self-collection of biospecimens to investigate endometriosis pain flares and my second project on understanding further how the immune system works in the endometrium. I'm such a curious person and I think that's what inspired me to go into science - I always wanted to know more. With endometriosis, there's so much that we still need to learn. There’s a huge diagnostic delay that needs to be shortened. We are in 2026 and they still have to do a surgery to be able to diagnose endometriosis. To me that's just mind blowing.I feel like the key to a lot of things is knowledge, knowing and understanding what's happening molecularly. Once you are fully knowledgeable on a disease you can follow with diagnosis and treatment. Knowledge is the key to everything and paves the way for the future. I want to encourage more women to go into science and get involved in paving the way to new discoveries that will help health care.What do you do in your free time?I've recently started running thanks to the ENDO1000 relay fundraiser that we did last year. This past weekend I did a half marathon for the first time. So definitely one of those things that I picked up thanks to ENDO1000!I also have a deep passion for music. I play clarinet in bands and orchestras around Edinburgh. I love sports and the gym. I like going outdoors - I do walking, biking, and hanging out with my friends. I also love food. Since being in Edinburgh I've discovered so many new places and different cuisines that I love trying.Related linksENDO1000 projectEXPPECT Edinburgh This article was published on 2026-02-11
