The rockefeller university

The Marlene Hess Center for Research on Women’s Health and Biomedicine was founded in response to mounting evidence that women and men manifest and experience disease differently and respond differently to medications. These observations continue to raise important questions about human biology. By increasing sex-specific and sex-differentiating scientific knowledge, the center aims to elucidate the mechanisms of normal biological processes and provide insight into the pathological mechanisms underlying disease. The center is founded on the principle that the path to better health outcomes for all begins with the basic scientific research which can eventually inform medical practice.

The Hess Center addresses gaps in the foundational knowledge about men and women’s health with these three mandates at its core:

• To understand sex as a modifier of disease and harness this understanding for medical benefit
• To broaden the range of research that incorporates sex as a biological variable through expanded inclusion of female cells, female tissues, and female animals in lab studies
• To ensure that scientific studies separate data by sex, which allows for comparative sex studies

The center accomplishes these goals by funding researchers at Rockefeller University to seed new projects, augment existing projects, and to foster collaboration. In 2024, sixteen 2-year grants were awarded to researchers working on important topics such as:

• Identifying and testing drugs against breast cancer
• Sex differences in aging
• Sex differences in multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Sex differences in metabolism and obesity
• Sex differences in cartilage repair in knee osteoarthritis
• Egg formation, early embryo development and fertility
• Sex differences in autism