Sex Cells!
April 12, 2021, 9:00 am to 11:00 am
It is imperative to consider sex and gender when conducting inclusive research, building unbiased technology and facilitating equitable healthcare. Research that implements sex- and gender-based analysis plus (SGBA+) has found important differences in many areas that pertain to neuroscience, including disease risk and effective treatments. Implementation of SGBA+ into your research is often required by funding agencies and will also lead to important discoveries and pathways for precision medicine.
Join the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, the UBC Women’s Health Research Cluster and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience for this free workshop on how to implement SGBA+ into your own research. It is intended for both faculty and trainees and will be led by Dr. Liisa Galea and Krystle van Hoof (bios below). This workshop includes talks by Dr. Galea and van Hoof, as well as breakout rooms which will provide the opportunity for small group discussions, where participants can talk about their own experiences of implementing SGBA+ and share questions and ideas about integrating this into their future research. If you have questions about how to incorporate sex and gender into your current research project, bring them to these breakout rooms and receive feedback from one of our experts!
Agenda
9:00-9:05 – Welcome
9:05-9:25 – Krystle van Hoof: What is Sex and Gender Based Analysis and Why is it Important?
9:25-9:30 – Q&A with Krystle and Liisa Galea
9:30-9:50 – Liisa Galea: Studying Sex and Sex-Specific Factors in Brain Health and Disease
9:50-10:10 – Q&A with Krystle and Liisa Galea
10:15-11:00 – Breakout Rooms: SGBA considerations in research FAQ
Speakers
 | Talk Title: What is Sex and Gender Based Analysis and Why is it Important? This talk will provide an overview of what SGBA+ is and why it is important and will review examples of studies that have implemented SGBA+. It will also discuss how SGBA+ can enhance your research and increase your ability to get published and funded. Bio: Krystle van Hoof is the Managing Director and CEO of Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives, a large-scale neuroinformatics initiative at McGill University. She has previously held a variety of leadership positions within the Canadian not-profit sector as well as the Canadian federal government and the United Nations. Krystle has worked in private sector marketing as well as non-profit communications and has led communications departments for two national Canadian associations—work that has been recognized with national awards. Directly prior to her current post, Krystle held the position of Assistant Director with the Institute of Gender and Health, one of 13 institutes that make up the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In this role, she worked to convince health researchers and trainees to integrate sex- and gender-based analysis plus (SGBA+) into their work (with some success and many heated discussions!) Krystle holds an MA in Communication for Development from Malmö University, a BA in Cultural Studies from York University and a Professional Certificate in Knowledge Translation from the University of Toronto. |
 | Talk Title: Studying Sex and Sex-Specific Factors in Brain Health and Disease This talk will feature the many types of sex differences that can be examined. We will talk about studying sex differences without sexism, and the need to "dig deeper" into SBGA. The talk will also highlight that SGBA is only the first step in towards precision medicine for women and men's health. Bio: Dr. Liisa Galea is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, and a member of the Centre for Brain Health, Director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Lead of the Women’s Health Research Cluster at UBC, and a Scientific Advisor at Women’s Health Research Institute at the University of British Columbia. Her research investigates how sex hormones influence brain health and disease in both females and males. The main goal of her research is to improve brain health for women and men by examining the influence of sex and sex hormones on normal and diseased brain states such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease. |