2022 women’s health and sex- and gender-based medicine pilot awards announced

The Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center Executive Advisory Board/UCLA CTSI Pilot Awards has announced four projects that will receive funding this year. UCLA CTSI has collaborated with the Iris-Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center and its Executive Advisory Donor Board since 2012, awarding over $1 million to support interdisciplinary projects exploring sex and gender-based differences and women’s health research.

To date, over 50 investigators at UCLA and CTSI partner institutions have been recipients of CTSI / Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center Awards. This year’s awardees include senior and junior faculty, as well as outstanding trainees who receive funding through the Young Investigator Awards aimed at supporting early career PhD candidates or postdoctoral students. Additionally, this year’s awardees also include investigators involved in health disparities research that addresses the needs of traditionally underserved populations of women (Health Disparities Research in Women’s Health Awards).

Projects explore a variety of topics relating to women’s health including: the role of epigenetic crosstalks in mediating the sensitivity of female germ cells to environmental exposures, the dynamics of estrogen response in medial preoptic area neurons, the relationship between culture and postpartum depressive systems in Black mothers, and the nutritional impact of paired vs unpaired breast feeding.

2022 Awardees:

Health Disparities Award

• "Culture, Postpartum Depressive Symptoms, and Help Seeking in Black Mothers: A Mixed Methods Study"
  Kortney Floyd James, PhD, RN, Postdoctoral Scholar, National Clinician Scholars Program, UCLA
  Joann Elmore, MD, MPH, Professor, David Geffen School of Medicine, Fielding School of Public Health (Health Policy and Management), Public Health Director, UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program, Endowed Chair in Health Care Delivery for the Rosalind and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, UCLA
  Nina Harawa, PhD, MPH, Professor, David Geffen School of Medicine, Fielding School of Public Health ( Health Policy and Management), UCLA

Augmentation Awards

• "Role of epigenetic crosstalks in mediating the sensitivity of female germ cells to environmental exposures"
  Patrick Allard, PhD, Associate Professor, UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
  "Nutritional Impact of Paired vs Unpaired Breast Feeding"
  Michael G. Ross, MD, MPH, Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Public Health, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Young Investigator Award

• "Dynamics of estrogen response in medial preoptic area neurons"
  Alexandra Cara, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Integrative Biology and Physiology, UCLA
  Stephanie Correa, PhD,  Associate Professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, UCLA

image caption: Clockwise from top-left: Kortney Floyd James, PhD, RN, Joann Elmore, MD, MPH, Nina Harawa, PhD, MPH, Patrick Allard, PhD, Michael G. Ross, MD, MPH, Alexandra Cara, PhD, and Stephanie Correa, PhD.

Image source: UCLA/Lundquist-Harbor