She is the principal investigator of COHERE Initiative, which aims to understand the regional women’s health of women living in Cyprus and disease patterns in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Moreover, it aims to investigate the influence of ‘Mediterranean lifestyle’ and genetic factors in this population on women’s health, which is envisaged to grow into an Eastern Mediterranean women’s health resource. Baseline was a cross-sectional study that recruited 7,646 women aged 18-55 residing in Northern Cyprus between January 2018 and February 2020 through house-hold and work-place visits. Study participants completed detailed health questionnaire, which is an expanded version of the WERF-EPHect questionnaire, including questions on demographics, menstrual history, hormone use, pregnancy, pain (pelvic pain, bladder and bowel pain, migraine), medical history, family history of illnesses, medication use, life-style factors in relation to a wide range of reproductive and endocrine conditions, resource use. Their weight, height, waist/hip circumference and blood pressure were measured. 10% of the participants attended a gynaecology clinic and received pelvic ultrasounds scans. Furthermore, 10% provided saliva samples for genotyping and genotype data has been produced from these individuals using the Illumina Global Screening Array. A follow-up online food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) pilot was also conducted in a subset of 650 participants with an aim to collect more detailed data on dietary habits.

Publications from COHERE Initiative

Swift B, et al. 2024. Prevalence, diagnostic delay and economic burden of endometriosis and its impact on quality of life: results from an Eastern Mediterranean population. Eur J Public Health.

Swift B, et al. 2023. Predictors and trends of Caesarean section and breastfeeding in the Eastern Mediterranean region: data from the cross-sectional Cyprus Women’s Health Research (COHERE) Initiative. PlosOne.

Swift B, et al. 2022. The Cyprus Women’s Health Research (COHERE) Initiative: normative data from the SF-36v2 questionnaire for reproductive aged women from the Eastern Mediterranean. Qual Life Res.

Hocaoglu MB, et al. 2019. Protocol for Cyprus Women’s Health Research (COHERE) Initiative: A Cross-Sectional Study. BMC Women’s Health.

Funding

You can read the fundraising efforts that brought this project to life by reading more here: https://www.wrh.ox.ac.uk/news/initiative-to-collect-womens-health-data-in-northern-cyprus-supported-by-multiple-donations

I earned my PhD in Medicine from King's College London in 2011, where I conducted research on the genetic underpinnings and identification of biomarkers for variability in induced CYP3A4 enzyme activity, which is a major drug-metabolizing enzyme implicated in various drug-drug interactions and adverse drug reactions. Prior to that, I completed an MSc in Environmental Health through the Cyprus Endowment program at Harvard School of Public Health and a BA in Biology from Clark University in the USA.

Since 2011, I have been part of the Endometriosis Care team, focusing on investigating genetic and environmental factors related to women's health conditions, with a particular emphasis on endometriosis and its co-morbidities, which have substantial public health implications. With a strong epidemiological, biological, and computational background, I have extensive experience in the analysis of large-scale phenotypic, genetic, RNA sequence, miRNA, methylation and proteomic datasets. My research involves genome-wide association studies investigating underlying genetic factors of endometriosis and its subtypes to entangle whether this is a single condition with multiple types or a progressive condition. Additionally, serving as a junior lead for the World Endometriosis Research Foundation (WERF)- Endometriosis Phenome and Biobanking Harmonization Project (EPHect), been involved in development of global consensus on standardized clinical data collection and protocols for biological sample collection in endometriosis research. Building upon the WERF-EPHect tools that were developed in English, I led the protocol development for translation and cultural adaptation of the participant questionnaire allowing for expansion of standardized data collection to non-English speaking populations which is now available in 16 languages. I have dedicated interest in expanding the heavily European-ancestry based genetic research in endometriosis to more diverse populations.

I am also a visiting senior research scientist at the Centre for Human Genetics, Nuffield Department of Medicine.