In recent years, medical research has led to fundamental improvements in women's health care. Unexpectedly, these studies have also uncovered an exciting, largely unexplored realm of scientific inquiry with far-reaching potential for a revolution in health care for women and men. We are learning that males and females are physiologically different in non-reproductive ways and exhibit unique, gender-dependent responses to a medical event and to subsequent clinical treatment. Recent findings even suggest that these seemingly gender-directed responses originate at the molecular level. This burgeoning field of "gender-based" medicine, therefore, promises pivotal advancements in biology and medicine.

The OHSU Research Center for Gender-Based Medicine is a collaborative team with seasoned investigators who identify and study gender-linked factors that influence prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and disability. While current science and public policy emphasize the importance of sex and gender as variables in human health, there remains a relative shortfall in scientific underpinnings for this important issue.

Center scientists conduct translational research to establish a basis for customized health care solutions for men and women. The Center is designed to integrate translational bench and clinical studies. Basic bench researchers study animal and cell models of pathobiology to yield data that support subsequent human clinical investigations and treatment trials relevant to gender-based medicine. We integrate diverse disciplines and methodologies to target not only understudied areas of women's health, such as neuroinjury and stroke, vascular health and dysfunction, hormonal aging and musculoskeletal preservation, and gender-specific responses to anesthesia and pain management, but also to target novel areas of gender-related biology in men.

Our team represents a broad spectrum of expertise in clinical and basic science specialties including neurosciences, vascular biology, endocrinology, pharmacology, cell engineering, genetics, and reproductive health.

MISSION

To provide International leadership in gender based medicine that will change the future of women's and men's health.

GOALS

1. To speed discovery in gender based medicine.
   
2. To facilitate and encourage translational preliminary studies that provide the evidence base for extramurally funded research.
   
3. To provide interdepartmental mentorship, collaboration and faculty networking for grantsmanship in gender-based medicine.
   

STRUCTURE

The Research Center for Gender-Based Medicine is a virtual center that uses existing resources at OHSU. Laboratory facilities, located in the Hatfield Research Building, are available through the Department of Anesthesiology and Peri-Operative Medicine and are equipped for wet bench research, rodent surgery, behavioral testing, and mouse breeding. Clinical investigation facilities and analytical support are available through the Women's Health Research Unit, the lead clinical research arm of the Center for Women's Health. Articulation sites are provided on-campus through the Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute, the Heart Research Center, and the OHSU Bone and Mineral Research Unit as well as off-campus through the Oregon Brain and Spine Institute.