# Hormones and Genes in Women's Health: From Bench to Bedside

> **NIH NIH K12** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2022 · $325,128

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Women and men are at different risks for disorders that occur at different stages of the lifespan from
development through aging and have critical implications for therapeutic efficacy. However, many of the
mechanisms that explain these sex differences or disorders specific to women are still unclear. The mission of
our Harvard BIRCWH is to develop the next generation of scientist-clinicians as leaders in the field of women's
health and sex differences who will contribute to understanding sex-dependent vulnerabilities to clinical
disorders and those specific to women. This competing renewal application seeks to continue to support an
integrated interdisciplinary training program that is based on a translational approach to understanding
differential incidences of disorders important for the health of women and how it differs from men. The program
is modeled in the context of a lifespan perspective to identify etiologic mechanisms during fetal development,
puberty, adulthood, and aging, including the child-bearing years and menopause. Further, an underlying
assumption of our BIRCWH program is that an understanding of the role of hormones and genes will provide
the basis for understanding sex-dependent vulnerabilities to clinical disorders. The Division of Women's Health
at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and the Women, Heart and Brain Global Initiative at Massachusetts
General Hospital (MGH) Research Institute, are the home sites for this endeavor, in the broader context of a
Harvard-wide training program. The program capitalizes on the long tradition of interdisciplinary research in
women's health and sex differences with mentors across Harvard institutions: BWH, MGH, Beth Israel-
Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, McLean Hospital,
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and the Eli & Edythe Broad Institute. Each
BIRCWH scholar is assigned a team of mentors to operationalize translational thinking. Primary Mentors are in
clinical or basic research and provide the site at which the scholar works. Secondary Mentors are in basic or
clinical research (as a counterpart to the Primary) and help to guide thinking, coursework and readings,
depending on the scholar's interests. Career Mentors advise scholars in the relevant departmental and
academic structures for career advancement. Mentors in Health Disparities expose scholars to thinking about
how the roles of hormones and genes in affected morbidity are influenced by socioenvironmental factors. The
Harvard BIRCWH program focuses on disorders with higher incidence and/or differential expression in women
than men including: Cardiovascular Disorders; Reproductive Endocrine & Neuroendocrine Disorders;
Neuropsychiatric Disorders; Autoimmune Disorders; and Female Cancers. By capitalizing on the vast
resources and faculty at Harvard and our 14-year successful BIRCWH history, Harvard is an ideal site for
con...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10434856
- **Project number:** 5K12HD051959-18
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** JILL M GOLDSTEIN
- **Activity code:** K12 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $325,128
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2005-09-01 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10434856

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10434856, Hormones and Genes in Women's Health: From Bench to Bedside (5K12HD051959-18). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10434856. Licensed CC0.

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