{"id":4751,"date":"2024-08-07T11:06:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T15:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/?p=4751"},"modified":"2026-06-22T13:11:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:11:30","slug":"boston-university-womens-health-arc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/2024\/08\/07\/boston-university-womens-health-arc\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston University Women\u2019s Health BIRCWH &#038; Research ARC co-supported by the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary BR and BMC"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><\/h3>\n<h4>Date<br style=\"clear: both;\" \/>July 2025 &#8211; present<\/h4>\n<h4>Co-Directors<\/h4>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/profile\/emelia-benjamin\/\">Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM<\/a><\/td>\n<td><span>Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at BU &amp; a cardiologist at BMC<\/span><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/profile\/elisha-wachman\/\">Elisha M. Wachman, MD<\/a><\/td>\n<td><span>Professor of Pediatrics at BU &amp; attending neonatologist at BMC<\/span><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/profile\/joyce-y-wong-ph-d\/\">Joyce Y Wong, PhD<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Professor of Biomedical Engineering &amp; Materials Science Engineering at BU<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ctsi\/boston-university-bircwh-program\/\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">BU Women\u2019s Health Research Accelerator Program<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/orwh.od.nih.gov\/building-interdisciplinary-research-careers-in-womens-health-bircwh\">Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women&#8217;s Health (BIRCWH)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span>The BU BIRCWH K12 program is to promote interdisciplinary women\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/span><span>Program funding is expected to begin in early December 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Upcoming ARC Meetings<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>7\/21\/26, BU WH ARC Monthly Meeting (Charles River Campus, location tbd)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span><b>9:00 am \u2013 10:00 am<br style=\"clear: both;\" \/><\/b><\/span><b>CRC\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/whra\/\"><strong>Contact the ARC leaders<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>ARC Overview<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The <strong>BU Women\u2019s Health BIRCWH &amp; Research ARC, co-supported by the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary BR and BMC<\/strong>\u00a0is led by <strong>Dr. Emelia Benjamin, <\/strong>a CAMed\/BUSPH population\/translational scientist; <strong>Dr. Elisha Wachman<\/strong>, a BMC\/CAMed clinical translational scientist with community engagement expertise; and <strong>Dr. Joyce Wong<\/strong>, a College of Engineering basic &amp; translational engineer and scientist. The ARC\u2019s <strong>vision <\/strong>is to promote convergent interdisciplinary women\u2019s health research across the life course by <strong>bringing together basic, clinical, population scientists and engineers to address unmet, long neglected needs in women\u2019s health research with novel tools and frameworks to accelerate innovation and clinical translation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The long-term goal is to investigate and improve women\u2019s health. This ARC brings together other ARCs, BU Centers, BU\u2019s CTSI, and BU\u2019s 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\u2019s reproductive health to investigate (1) <strong>Infertility from infection<\/strong>, and (2) <strong>Teratogenesis from Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) in reproductive women<\/strong>, with an additional <strong><em>cross-cutting resource<\/em> of sex as a biological variable<\/strong>. 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.<\/p>\n<p>The ARC\u2019s <strong>Specific Aims <\/strong>demonstrate examples of our vision, which will develop novel tools and resources that can be broadly applied to other women\u2019s health conditions:<\/p>\n<p><strong>AIM 1:<\/strong> Develop an organ-on-chip platform to enable collaborative research on tubal factor infertility and to accelerate clinical translation potential.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AIM 2:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p>These aims lay the groundwork for convergent and integrative biomedical science and engineering approaches that can be applied to a broad range of women\u2019s health clinical challenges. The group has a particular interest in <em>creating opportunities for early-stage investigators (<strong>ESIs<\/strong>) to pursue careers in women\u2019s health research<\/em>. In addition, along with <strong>Katya Ravid,<\/strong> director of the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, ARC members will plan a novel <strong>Resource Center<\/strong> at BU\/BMC for including sex as a biological variable in research across BU.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DateJuly 2025 &#8211; present Co-Directors Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at BU &amp; a cardiologist at BMC Elisha M. Wachman, MD Professor of Pediatrics at BU &amp; attending neonatologist at BMC Joyce Y Wong, PhD Professor of Biomedical Engineering &amp; Materials Science Engineering at BU BU Women\u2019s Health Research Accelerator [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[627],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4751"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6671,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751\/revisions\/6671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}