Tufts BIRCWH Program

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Project Summary There is a demonstrated need to increase the number of excellent researchers in women's health and sex/gender differences to better understand basic mechanisms of disease and develop treatment that addresses the heterogeneity of treatment effects by sex. The Tufts University Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Scholars Program seeks to develop a model program to recruit, select, and train junior faculty to conduct basic research in sex/gender differences and clinical and health services research on women's health issues. The long term goals of the Tufts BIRCWH Program are to develop the next generation of leaders in research in sex/gender differences and women’s health. The Program will fund junior faculty within 6 years of their training. We will fund 2 types of trainees, Basic Science Scholars and Clinical Scholars, who have completed their doctoral training but require more in depth interdisciplinary research training. The Program will achieve its goals through 5 key activities, tailored to meet each Scholar’s training needs: 1) interdisciplinary mentoring teams, 2) formal research training including courses at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, 3) interdisciplinary research seminars, 4) a mentored research project, and 5) development of skills in grant proposal preparation. The Tufts BIRCWH Program will promote all stages of translational research from basic science in sex/gender differences to clinical and outcomes research focusing on several important questions in the care of women:  Sex differences in basic cellular mechanisms, including cardiovascular sex differences, mechanisms of sex differences in psychopharmacological effects and side effects, cancer metastases, bioengineering of cervical tissue, reproductive and neonatal genomic medicine, intergenerational effects on mothers and their children during pregnancy, basic mechanism of sex differences in depression and substance use.  Nutrition science and sex/gender differences, with a focus on both basic research on sex hormones and other sex differences in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and clinical research addressing nutritional supplements, and nutrition and disease in women.  Clinical outcomes and comparative effectiveness research on women’s health and gender differences, with a major focus on cardiovascular disease, metabolism and nutrition.  Understanding gender and workforce issues, the impact of health on workforce functioning in women, and gender and academic science careers. We propose to fund 3 scholars annually, with initial appointments of 2 years with an option to be considered for a 3rd year.