{"id":142039,"date":"2026-02-19T15:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/?post_type=bu-article&p=142039"},"modified":"2026-02-19T15:24:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:24:47","slug":"2026-sexual-medicine-research-fund-awards-announced","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/news-events\/articles\/2026\/2026-sexual-medicine-research-fund-awards-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Sexual Medicine Research Fund Awards Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGrant Awards<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2026 Sexual Medicine Research Fund Awards Announced\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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February 19, 2026<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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Please congratulate the recipients of the 2026 Sexual Medicine Research Fund Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vidhya Kumaresan<\/a>, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology, physiology & biophysics<\/strong>, in collaboration with Professor of Medicine and Virology, Immunology & Microbiology Gustavo Mostoslavsky,<\/a> MD, PhD, and Assistant Professor of Medicine\/Computational Biomedicine Sarah Mazzilli<\/a>, PhD, will obtain pilot data for chronic cocaine-induced novel changes in regulation of gene-expression underpinning drug use -induced exacerbation of disease. Results will be validated using iPSC cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deborah Lang<\/a>, PhD, associate professor of dermatology<\/strong>, will study how differences between sexes influence stem cells, using melanocytes as a model. There are sex-based variabilities when it comes to skin pigmentation, external stress responses, and disease development (vitiligo and melanoma). The goal is to see if gene expression differences between sexes can explain these responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nelson Lau<\/a>, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & cell biology<\/strong>, and his lab recently discovered the Traffic Jam (TJ) transcription factor activates piRNA expression in Drosophila <\/em>ovaries for sexual reproduction (Rivera et al<\/em>, Cell Reports 2025). This award will enable them to test if the mammalian orthologs of TJ like MAF factors also promote piRNA expression in the model testes to inform on male infertility disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ann Zumwalt<\/a>, PhD, associate professor of anatomy & neurobiology, and Carl Streed<\/a>, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine\/GIM<\/strong>, will build on prior work by their research team that demonstrated faculty development and institutional culture are significant drivers of medical training quality regarding gender- and sexuality-diverse (GSD) populations. They now will expand these investigations to a national context and support developing GSD trainings for educators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please congratulate the recipients of the 2026 Sexual Medicine Research Fund Awards. Vidhya Kumaresan, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology, physiology & biophysics, in collaboration with Professor of Medicine and Virology, Immunology & Microbiology Gustavo Mostoslavsky, MD, PhD, and Assistant Professor of Medicine\/Computational Biomedicine Sarah Mazzilli, PhD, will obtain pilot data for chronic cocaine-induced novel changes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":133506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"Grant Awards","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[356,444],"bu-publication":[367],"medicine-article-category":[],"medicine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[413],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[390],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/142039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142039"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/142039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142047,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/142039\/revisions\/142047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142039"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=142039"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-article-category?post=142039"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-topic?post=142039"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=142039"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=142039"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=142039"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=142039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}