ANN ARBOR—At the University of Michigan, Carol Boyd works to reduce prescription drug abuse by American teenagers. Her research has found that adolescent girls are more likely to abuse narcotics such as oxycodone for health problems.

Carolyn Johnston studies social barriers hindering the distribution of HPV vaccines that can prevent cervical cancer around the world.

Nesha Haniff travels to South Africa with U-M students to educate women about protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS.

Lisa Kane Low works with women in Honduras to improve prenatal care and reduce mortality among childbearing women.

But these U-M researchers struggle to find adequate funding for their cutting-edge projects. Now they are reaching out to others” particularly women” to help close this gap.

On Oct. 13, women from across the country are meeting in Ann Arbor to form the Sisters Fund, an innovative strategy to improve lives. It is the first time in U-M’s history that a research fund, financed primarily by women, is being dedicated to women’s health.

” The Sisters Fund is about people coming together to support projects, which ordinarily would not get funded. These projects have the potential to change the lives of women, men and families,” said Boyd, director of U-M’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender and a professor of nursing and women’s studies.

Dr. Susan Love, a founder of the breast cancer advocacy movement and a nationally recognized expert on women’s health, will speak at the kick-off breakfast for the fund. The goal is to establish a core of women to build the Sisters Fund and raise at least $250,000 in seed money.

The Sisters Fund is important for cutting-edge research, Love said.

” It is extremely difficult to get funding for innovative ideas in women’s health these days,” Love said. ” You almost have to have completed the work in order to get the funding. A pool of money for pilot studies is vitally important to encourage researchers to study women’s health and as a bridge to further funding.”

Ellen Agress, a breast cancer survivor who lost her mother to the disease, is serving as a co-chair of the Sisters Fund with Boyd.

” If women want to see societal changes in the areas of health care for women, equal career opportunities, domestic violence and child care, they have to flex their economic muscles,” said Agress, a U-M alumna and senior vice president and general counsel of New America Incorporated in New York. ” I think it’s very important for women to use the ” power of the purse” to support issues they care about so that those issues will get the attention they deserve.”

The kick off for the Sisters Fund is being held during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to highlight the importance of women’s health issues.

Love will also present a free lecture on hormone replacement therapy at 1 p.m. Oct. 13. The annual lecture, known as the Vivian Shaw lecture, was endowed by Agress in honor of her mother, Vivian Shaw, who died of breast cancer.

Love, author of ” Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book” and” Dr. Susan Love’s Menopause and Hormone Book,” is president and medical director of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention of breast cancer.

She is a clinical professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California-Los Angeles and serves on the boards of the National Breast Cancer Coalition and Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization.

The launch of the Sisters Fund is a story of women marshaling their intellectual and economic power to help others. It is also the story of world-class researchers at U-M working to find ways to improve women’s health around the world.

TICKET INFORMATION

BREAKFAST: Fund-raiser for the Sisters Fund, which will underwrite research on women’s health around the world.

Time: 7:45-10 a.m.

Place: Michigan Union Ballroom, second floor, 530 S. State Street, Ann Arbor.

Topic: Love, one of the ” founding mothers” of the breast cancer advocacy movement, will discuss breast cancer awareness and treatment.

Cost: $300 per person. Cost is fully tax-deductible. For tickets contact Laura Pavledes at (734) 615-6653 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays or at laurap@umich.edu.

FREE LECTURE: Dr. Love discusses hormone replacement therapy.

Time: 1 p.m.

Place: Rackham Auditorium, 915 E. Washington Street, Ann Arbor.

Topic: ” How Marketing Has Manufactured Diseases We need to Prevent.”

This is the annual Vivian Shaw Lecture, named in honor of Shaw, who died of breast cancer. The lecture series was endowed by Ellen Agress, Shaw’s daughter, a breast cancer survivor.

Cost: Free and open to the public.