20 Jun Sex Differences Methods Workshop: Embracing a Sea of Change in Biomedical Research
Sex differences—differences between men and women in physiology, disease progression, response to treatment and more—are pervasive in medicine. And yet, for decades, there’s been a strong tilt toward over-representing men in basic, translational and clinical research. In 1993, new regulations by the National Institutes of Health requiring the participation of female subjects in clinical trials helped re-balance the clinical research scales, but the disproportionate number of male animals and cells derived from male subjects has meant that preclinical research may not tell the full story.