Faculty

Bio

Dr. Rachel Vogel is an Associate Professor with tenure in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health.

Dr. Vogel received her Master's degree in Biostatistics and finished her Ph.D. in Epidemiology in 2016 at the University of Minnesota. She was a biostatistics research fellow with the Masonic Cancer Center from 2008-2016 before transitioning to a faculty position in the Medical School.  

Dr. Vogel is dedicated to research in women's cancer and is currently the Masonic Cancer Center's Women's Health Research Scholar. She is interested in outcomes research and cancer survivorship. She is closely involved in the design of observational and clinical studies within the Department and serves as a statistical consultant and mentor to the faculty, fellows and residents.

Research Summary

Dr. Vogel is dedicated to improving the lives of cancer survivors. As the number of cancer survivors increases, the long-term effects of the disease and treatment have become a substantial public health concern. Dr. Vogel and her team focus on understanding the short and long-term physical, emotional and social effects of cancer, and on developing interventions to mitigate the effects. They specifically focus on designing, implementing and analyzing studies to test preclinical and clinical cancer research hypotheses. Dr. Vogel as successfully received funding from the National Institute of Health, Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program, American Cancer Society and Melanoma Research Alliance. For more details, please see Dr. Vogel's research website: https://z.umn.edu/vogel-lab.

Bio

Dr. Wernimont received her MD and PhD as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. For her PhD, she studied basic mechanisms of T cell activation. Afterwards, she completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Iowa, as part of their Physician Scientist Training Program. Dr. Wernimont joined the University of Minnesota in 2020 and her research is currently funded through the NIH Reproductive Scientist Development Program. In addition to caring for patients with complicated pregnancies, she has a strong research interest in improving care delivery for pregnant patients with diabetes and fetal growth abnormalities.

Research Summary

Dr. Wernimont’s research interests are directed towards improving outcomes for people with pregnancies complicated by diabetes and obesity. In her clinical research, she has worked to develop
and identify better ways to deliver care for patients with diabetes in pregnancy. Towards this end, she recently created the University of Minnesota Obstetric Measures (UMOMs) database that includes over
70,000 patients and 100,000 deliveries from the MHealth/Fairview System. She has used this database to examine timing of delivery in pregnancies complicated by diabetes and how providers define “poor
glucose control.” She is currently leading a multi-department effort to establish a biorepository for systematic collection of maternal, placental, and neonatal samples to support translational research across the perinatal spectrum at the University of Minnesota to link with clinical data within the UMOMs database. The resulting biorepository is termed UMOM:GOPHER (University of Minnesota Obstetric Measures--Gestational Outcomes and Pediatric HEalth Repository). In her basic science, Dr. Wernimont studies how the maternal nutritional-metabolic environment impacts placental development, function and long-term health outcomes. Using both human placental specimens and trophoblast cell lines, Dr. Wernimont combines cutting edge metabolomics and transcriptomics to define the mechanisms by which changes in nutrient availability impact trophoblast differentiation. The long term goal of this work is to develop novel strategies to improve pregnancy health and childhood outcomes in pregnancies complicated by diabetes.

Clinical Summary

Clinical interests:
Diabetes and obesity in pregnancy; Fetal Growth Abnormalities

Bio

Dr. Winterhoff received his medical degree and his Dr. Med. in Molecular Oncology from the Christian Albrecht's University in Kiel, Germany. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology, a research fellowship in Cancer Genomics and a fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the Mayo Clinic.

Research Summary

Dr. Winterhoff's research interests are ovarian and endometrial cancer and the clinical application of cancer genomics. His active research interests are as follows:

1. Use of cancer genomics to identify ovarian cancer patients most benefiting from antiangiogenic treatment with bevacizumab.
2. Use of cancer genomics to identify endometrial cancer patients at high risk for lymph node metastasis and recurrence.
3. Use of cancer genomics for early detection of cancer.

Clinical Summary

Schedule an Appointment: 
Minneapolis - M Health Fairview Masonic Cancer Clinic, Appointments: 612-676-4200 
Maplewood - M Health Fairview Clinic, Appointments: 651-232-7800

Clinical Interests:
Cancer genomics; robotic surgery; individualized medicine

Bio

Dr. Wise completed medical school at Baylor College of Medicine and her Ob/Gyn residency at the University of Minnesota. She then completed a research fellowship including a master’s in clinical research and worked as a general Ob/Gyn at the University of North Carolina. She strives to meet patients where they are, ensure that they have a thorough understanding of their health, and create tailored plans together to move toward their goals.

Research Summary

Dr. Wise’s research has a focus on barriers to prevention and early diagnosis and treatment of gynecologic cancers and how to target these barriers to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes.

Clinical Summary

Clinical Interests:
contraceptive care, high risk obstetrics including substance use disorders in pregnancy, menopause care, gynecologic surgery, gynecologic cancer prevention and detection

Clinical Summary

Clinical Interest 
Fetal cardiology; fetal interventions; and the prevention of prematurity.

Bio

Dr. Yamamura received her medical degree from the Ponce School of Medicine in 2001. She went on to complete her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Mayo Clinic as well as a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Yamamura is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and has a subspecialty certification in maternal-fetal medicine. Dr. Yamamura is the Program Director for the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship and the Director of the Perinatal Assessment Center.

Clinical Summary

Clinical Interests:
Decreased cervical competence; Preterm birth; Maternal-fetal red blood cell and platelet incompatibility