# Career Enhancement Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $138,300

## Abstract

The Career Enhancement Core (CEC) will contribute to training the next generation of scientists and
clinician- scientists as leaders in the fields of women's health and sex differences in medicine. They will be
empowered to contribute to understanding sex-dependent vulnerabilities to major psychiatric and associated
medical disorders. Our SCORE focuses on understanding sex differences in major depression and associated
autonomic physiology and translation of this knowledge into the development of sex-dependent therapeutics.
Defining the impact of gender in addition to sex, will prepare our participants to think about translation of
scientific findings to policy and advocacy. Training the next generation as to the importance of sex and gender
in understanding medicine and healthcare will be critical in realizing the national strategic plan to develop
precision or personalized medicine. The SCORE faculty have a long history of training people to think about
sex and gender in medicine. We will integrate the training infrastructures of the SCORE partners focused on
women's health and sex differences in diseases to provide new opportunities, expand resources, add new
faculty, and educate trainees with regard to new technologies and approaches. The CEC will capitalize on a
long tradition of interdisciplinary research collaborations on sex differences and women's health among
investigators across these institutions, including a previous ORWH P50 SCOR that focused on sex differences
in major depression across HMS, CSU, and the University of Arizona. We have made available to our mentees
a vast array of biomedical resources across institutions that address scientific questions essential to improving
women's health. To enhance the careers of SCORE trainees, the CEC will specifically: 1) Integrate levels of
training and thought about etiologic mechanisms at basic and clinical levels for sex differences, and for gender
and health disparities at the policy level. 2) Mentor trainees from a team perspective that exposes them to
different levels of analysis from mentors with complementary expertise. 3) Provide access to material and
faculty resources that will enhance the success of the initial group of candidates. The CEC infrastructure will
provide a model that can be generalized to others in the future, playing a convening/integrative role in training
the next generation across fields, methodologies and institutions. We are also committed to training a diverse
biomedical workforce, as exemplified by the first set of participants and investigators included in this SCORE.
Two junior faculty will serve as initial models for implementing this CEC based on their interests in sex
differences in immune pathways in the brain, fetal programming and offspring brain development, and impact
of pregnancy complications on offspring brain and cardiac function. Finally, we will (4) provide seed funding to
supplement work with the preclinical studies and ultimately translate ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9853482
- **Project number:** 1U54MH118919-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** JORDAN W SMOLLER
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $138,300
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9853482

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9853482, Career Enhancement Core (1U54MH118919-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9853482. Licensed CC0.

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