The overarching goal of the proposed Brigham/Harvard Center for Stress and Neural Regulation of Reproductive Aging Health Outcomes is to investigate the role of stress and its neural mechanisms in reproductive aging health outcomes that confer susceptibility to cardiovascular disease and dementia in aging women, and to catalyze growth of interdisciplinary and translational women?s health and sex-differences research. Within this framework, the proposed Career Enhancement Core (CEC) will be responsible for the integration of cross-Center and Harvard-wide expertise to provide a rich research and learning environment for training the next generation of investigators in women?s health and sex differences in stress, sleep, cognitive decline, cardiometabolic disease and neural regulation research. The CEC is uniquely placed to leverage strong existing institutional programs and infrastructure in addition to developing an interdisciplinary training and mentorship program.
The specific aims of the CEC are: 1) To fund cutting-edge SCORE Scholars and Pilot Projects to promising early- career investigators or established investigators who are gaining new skills in stress, neural regulation, and sleep, to foster sex/gender and women?s health research in reproductive aging health outcomes relevant to cardiovascular disease and dementia in postmenopausal women; 2) To train CEC participants in a robust educational program in sex-differences research methods, transparency, and rigor, as well as support Travel Exchange Fellowships to foster learning and collaboration with the national SCORE research network; and 3) To disseminate knowledge from these educational programs and research methods to the local and wider national community through webinars, publications, and online educational forums. Achieving these aims will not only advance the mission of our SCORE but will also promote the development of a new cadre of investigators in the field. The CEC will work closely with all the Brigham/Harvard SCORE Projects, SRC, and LAC to leverage robust existing research infrastructure in women?s health, sleep medicine, neuroscience, stress science, and cardiometabolic disease to meet career enhancement needs for participants. Additionally, the CEC will build a robust educational resource for the Brigham/Harvard community and the larger SCORE community.
CAREER ENHANCEMENT CORE NARRATIVE The Brigham/ Harvard Career Enhancement Core (CEC) will train, support and engage the next generation of investigators in sex differences research in stress, sleep, neural regulation, and health outcomes. The CEC will also impact the wider SCORE and national community through Travel Exchange Fellowships and public dissemination of methods and best practices.
