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A patient’s sex and/or gender is often a neglected factor in biomedical research. Yet in order to understand differences in the emergence and progression of diseases and to develop suitable treatments, it is important for such research to take sex and gender differences into account. Every cell has a sex and every person is gendered, so biomedical research should acknowledge these facts and take sex and gender aspects into account. The sex of cells, tissues, animals and of course humans matter and when research does not consider sex and gender aspects we may miss important effects. It can even harm the life of patients as the example of the female heart attack and the differing symptoms or the life threatening effects of drugs on women have shown.

Considering sex and gender aspects adds a valuable dimension to research, improves the reproducibility and makes sure that everyone gets the best medical treatment. Several funding agencies, such as the European Union or the DFG and also some bio/medical journals already require to integrate sex and gender aspects into research projects.

The symposium wants to explore the potential, that sex and gender aspects adds to biomedical research, from basic research to different fields of clinical research. It is open to students from Master to PhD- level. The program combines both lectures and workshops, where the participants have the opportunity to discuss their own ideas and learn from well-established researchers including the winner of the 2019 BIH Excellence Award for Sex and Gender Aspects in Health Research. During the poster session participants can present own results and research projects regarding sex and/or gender aspects. 

Participants

The symposium is open to master’s, MD and PhD students with a biomedical background (biology, medicine, other disciplines) who wish to learn more about sex and gender aspects in biomedical research. The number of participants is limited to 40.

Participants may present own results and research projects with a poster. There will be a poster session during lunch break. Please indicate in your application, if you would like to present a poster and send a short exposé about the content to equal.opportunity@bihealth.de until 26.08.19. The organizers will select the posters for presentation and inform you in time.

Deadline: 

Please register until August 26, 2019, if you want to take part. Participation is free of charge. Please follow this link to register.

The german medical association (Ärztekammer) will award continuing medical education 10 points for the attendance of this symposium.

Program

9:00                  Opening

9:30 - 10:30      Lecture by Prof. Dr. Ineke Klinge: "Gendered Innovations 2.0 ; global recognition of the                              need to consider sex and gender related factors in all  (bio) medical research"

10:45-11:45      Lecture by PD Dr. Andrea Kindler-Röhrborn:"Genetic  and environmental aspects of                                    sexual dimorphisms in preclinical rodent research”

12:00-13:00       Lunch break and poster presentation

13:00-15:00       Parallel workshops (round 1)

15:00-17:00       Parallel workshops (round 2)

19:00                 Award Ceremony (open to the public) for the 2019 BIH Excellence Award for Sex and Gender Aspects in Health Research with a keynote of the award winner: Prof. Dr. Antoinette Maassen van den Brink

Lecture: Migraine in women, from headache to heartache

About the winner:

Dr. Antoinette Maassen van den Brink is Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam,  The Netherlands. She studies the neurovascular aspects of migraine, with a special interest in the role of female sex hormones on its pathophysiology. Her research is translational in origin, including animal in vivo experimental models, human isolated tissue models, as well as human in vivo clinical models. She is a board member of the Dutch Headache Society, Dutch Pharmacology Society and founding board member of the Dutch Society for Gender and Health. Further, she serves as a board member for the European Headache Federation and the Federation of European Pharmacological Societies.   She has received many prestigious research grants and awards from the American Headache Society, International Headache Society, Dutch Heart Foundation, Dutch Brain Foundation, the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, as well as the  Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). https://pharma.erasmusmc.nl/migraine.html

Offered Workshops:

Prof. Dr. Stefan Gold (Charité): Sex differences in autoimmunity

PD Dr. Anne Letsch (Charité): Sex  and gender aspects in oncology

Dr. med. Rosa Schmuck (Charité) : Gender Bias in Cancer Research and Treatment: the Surgeons perspective

Dr. Raphaela Fritsche (MDC) and Dr. Mario Lorenz (Charité): Cellular sex matters: Functional and metabolic differences between male and female human endothelial cells from umbilical cords of twin pairs"

Date

September 24, 2019, 9 am- 8pm

Venue

Lectures and workshops:

Berlin Institute of Health, Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Str. 2, 10178 Berlin.

Award Ceremony:

Kaiserin Friedrich Haus, Galerie, Robert Koch Platz 7, 10115 

Registration

Please register here until September 20, 2019, if you wish to take part. Participation is free of charge.

Childcare

We are pleased to offer childcare services during this event. Please let us know, if you need childcare,please include for how many children, and what ages in your registration. If you have further questions you can contact the BIH equal opportunity officer Karin Höhne at equal.opportunity@bihealth.de