# Tufts BIRCWH Program

> **NIH NIH K12** · TUFTS UNIVERSITY BOSTON · 2021 · $538,400

## Abstract

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.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10229457
- **Project number:** 5K12HD092535-05
- **Recipient organization:** TUFTS UNIVERSITY BOSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Karen Freund
- **Activity code:** K12 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $538,400
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-11 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10229457

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10229457, Tufts BIRCWH Program (5K12HD092535-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10229457. Licensed CC0.

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