Date
July 2025 – present
Co-Directors
| Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM | Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at BU & a cardiologist at BMC | |
| Elisha M. Wachman, MD | Professor of Pediatrics at BU & attending neonatologist at BMC | |
| Joyce Y Wong, PhD | Professor of Biomedical Engineering & Materials Science Engineering at BU |
BU Women’s Health Research Accelerator Program
The BU BIRCWH K12 program is to promote interdisciplinary women’s health research to improve health quality across the life course. The mission is to develop lifelong independent investigators who contribute to a flourishing national network in women’s health, health outcomes, and sex differences research across the translational science continuum. The BU BIRCWH program will focus on cross-cutting themes of health outcomes across all populations, addiction science, maternal and child health, and sex influences on health, consistent with NIH ORWH priorities and our institutional expertise. Program funding is expected to begin in early December 2025.
Upcoming ARC Meetings
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11/17 from 12-2pm (Medical Campus, 700 Albany St, room W502)
**In person attendance is strongly encouraged**
Virtual option: https://bostonu.zoom.us/my/bu.whra
One tap mobile +13092053325,,95224194010# US +13126266799,,95224194010# US (Chicago)Speakers:
Xiaoling Zhang, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Section of Biomedical Genetics
Talk Title: “A novel trajectory analysis for longitudinal, multivariate, mixed-outcome and its application to Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative”Collette Ncube, DrPH MPH MS
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health
Talk Title: “Remote Blood Pressure Monitoring in pregnancy: the potential for wearable technology.”Glenda Smerin & Vanna Zachariou, PhD
Edward Avedesian Professor, Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Biophysics, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Talk title: “Novel female specific G protein signaling pathways modulating nociception and analgesia”*Brainstorming session for ARC pilots to follow lightning talks. All are encouraged to come with ideas for collaboration.
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Next Meeting: 12/3 from 10am-12pm (Charles River Campus, 610 Commonwealth Ave, CILSE 106B)
Contact the ARC leaders
ARC Overview
The BU Women’s Health Research ARC is led by Dr. Emelia Benjamin, a CAMed/BUSPH population/translational scientist; Dr. Elisha Wachman, a BMC/CAMed clinical translational scientist with community engagement expertise; and Dr. Joyce Wong, a College of Engineering basic & translational engineer and scientist. The ARC’s vision is to promote convergent interdisciplinary women’s health research across the life course by bringing together basic, clinical, population scientists and engineers to address unmet, long neglected needs in women’s health research with novel tools and frameworks to accelerate innovation and clinical translation.
The long-term goal is to investigate and improve women’s health. This ARC brings together other ARCs, BU Centers, BU’s CTSI, and BU’s Office of Technology Development to accelerate research from the bench to bedside to community capitalizing on expertise from the Charles River, Medical, and VA Campuses. The two pilot projects in the first year of our ARC specifically focus on women’s reproductive health to investigate (1) Infertility from infection, and (2) Teratogenesis from Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) in reproductive women, with an additional cross-cutting resource of sex as a biological variable. These areas were selected based on the expertise of our ARC faculty, clinical health priorities, and known gaps that have led to stalled research progress.
The ARC’s Specific Aims demonstrate examples of our vision, which will develop novel tools and resources that can be broadly applied to other women’s health conditions:
AIM 1: Develop an organ-on-chip platform to enable collaborative research on tubal factor infertility and to accelerate clinical translation potential.
AIM 2: Develop a novel sea urchin embryonic model for substance exposures and a new clinical biobank to accelerate pharmacokinetic research for pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorders.
These aims lay the groundwork for convergent and integrative biomedical science and engineering approaches that can be applied to a broad range of women’s health clinical challenges. The group has a particular interest in creating opportunities for early-stage investigators (ESIs) to pursue careers in women’s health research. In addition, along with Katya Ravid, director of the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, ARC members will plan a novel Resource Center at BU/BMC for including sex as a biological variable in research across BU.