CDI 9th annual symposium focuses on the science of gender

CTSI co-sponsored the 9th annual UCLA Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute (CDI) Symposium on May 13, 2022, along with co-sponsors The Center for Study of Women and the Health Equity and Translational Social Science Research Theme. The event was hosted virtually and in-person at the Tamkin Auditorium at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Each year, the event is intended to generate cross-campus collaborations to advance translational child health research. This year's symposium theme focused on the science of gender and featured keynote speaker, Admiral Rachel Levine, MD, from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services on gendering identity and health. 

Dr. Steve Mittelman, Associate Vice Chair of Translational Research for the Department of Pediatrics, a CDI scientific leader, and a member of the CDI Symposium Planning Committee, expressed that “this was an incredible day that brought together clinicians and scientists from a wide variety of disciplines to learn about what gender really means. This was such an important opportunity for us to learn about the issues facing our transgender/nonbinary patients, family, and friends.”

The virtual and in-person event garnered over 250 participants. Attendees finished the day by hearing selected pediatric subspecialty fellow presentations and participating in the poster session.

For a complete list of poster presenters, visit the UCLA CDI Annual Symposium webpage for more information on the event. Dr. Sherin Devaskar shared that “the Annual CDI symposium has grown over the years, bringing state-of-the-art speakers from across the globe, thereby attracting multi-disciplinary attendees resulting in cross-interactive collaborations and education and training of many next generation physician-scientists, scientists and clinicians. We look forward to considering another focused topic for the 2023 symposium that will be timely and of interest to a broad swath of attendees from here on the UCLA campus and beyond.”  

The UCLA CDI Institute is the research home of the Pediatrics Department and encourages multidisciplinary child health research and training at UCLA across the spectrum of basic, translational, clinical and health services research.  

See the 2022 symposium photo gallery here.

image caption 1: From left to right: CDI faculty leadership in attendance included Sherin Devaskar, Steve Mittelman, Anna-Barbara Moscicki and Peter Szilagyi.

Image source: UCLA CDI

image caption 2: Over 250 participants joined in-person or virtually.

Image source: UCLA CDI

image caption 3: Attendees finished the day by hearing selected pediatric subspecialty fellow presentations and participating in the poster session.

Image source: UCLA CDI