Dear Colleagues, 

I am pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.

Women and girls must be at the center of health innovation to ensure all people can live healthy and productive lives. The National Institutes of Health and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-hosted the Innovation Equity Forum last week to map out global opportunities to advance women's health equity. Women's health - from contraception to maternal care to basic research - demands urgent attention and funding to ensure that women, everywhere, can remain in good health. When women thrive, we all thrive. Last week, we joined women's health experts to discuss challenges and opportunities to accelerate progress on women's health. I was thrilled to be part of the Steering Committee (left, below) and working with Jamie White, Health Science Strategy and Relations Lead, at ORWH (right, below). This discussion will help set the stage for the Grand Challenges discussions in October in Senegal. Stay tuned!

Please continue to share important news and opportunities with us so that we may share it with you and others who are committed to supporting the careers of exceptional women in science.

Stay safe and sound,

Karla Shepard Rubinger
Executive Director
Rosalind Franklin Society
www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org

These researchers are reimagining animal behavior through a feminist lens.
Evolutionary biologist Ambika Kamath and social scientist Melina Packer of the University of Colorado Boulder are working to dismantle outdated, biased scientific ideas through research and a new curriculum. Read more.

3 UK universities nurturing a new generation of female engineers.
As the demands for STEM careers grow, where should aspiring female engineers study engineering? If you’re looking for an empowering education in engineering that’ll inspire you to be a global changemaker, here are four universities to consider. Read more.

Carol Robinson Inducted into Prestigious American Philosophical Society (APS) for 2023.

Dame Carol Robinson, the Dr. Lee's Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery at Oxford University, has received recognition for her pioneering work in mass spectrometry techniques spanning more than three decades. Her research has revolutionized our understanding of protein structures and interactions, particularly in relation to diseases. Read more. Image credit: Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery

New method offers unprecedented detail in tracking protein activity in living cells.
Vilcek Creative Promise Prize-winning scientist Alice Ting of Stanford is the lead author on a new study published in Cell Press News that outlines a revolutionary technique for tracking protein activity in living cells. Read more.

Understanding the role of KMT2D in MLL-AF9 acute myeloid leukemia. 

Nicole Cruz, with mentor Robert G. Roeder, at The Rockefeller University, New York, received the latest Mark Foundation for Cancer Research Physician-Scientist award in partnership with Damon Runyon. Read more. Image credit: Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation & The Mark Foundation.

The Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Awards.
The Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars Fellowship Award submission period is now OPEN. The Award will support individual postdoctoral scientists of exceptional creativity in the field of neurosciences. The new enrollment period will run from June of 2023 to November 1, 2023. Read more.

Wistar Institute Study Gives New Insight into How Cancer Metastasizes to the Brain.

 A new study by Wistar scientists published in Nature Communications shows that a type of brain cell called astrocytes plays an important role in promoting brain metastasis by recruiting a specific subpopulation of immune cells. The finding could be a first step toward identifying potential targets for therapies to fight cancers that metastasize to the brain. This would fill a significant unmet need, said researcher Qing Chen, M.D., Ph.D. Read more. Image credit: Wistar Institute.

The V Foundation for Cancer Research Announces the First Class of A Grant of Her Own: The Women Scientists Innovation Award for Cancer Research.
This landmark initiative is helping to counteract longstanding gender disparities in research by investing $8 million in the groundbreaking work of 11 women scientists leading the charge in cancer research. Read more.

Carolyn Kraus receives competitive Ruth L. Kirschstein award.


Carolyn Kraus, a PhD candidate in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to study how CRISPR/Cas9 tools can be used to develop a therapeutic for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Read more. Image credit: UMass Chan Medical School.

Women in STEM: An Inspiring Journey with Dr. Jo Brewer.
“At school I was encouraged to follow science because I was good at it. It felt natural to follow what I was good at, and they pushed everybody to be the best they could be. That’s how I was brought up. Later in my career, having a family and children also caused some good and bad experiences. When I went on maternity leave with my first child, that was a really good experience because I was one of four mothers in a company of about 40 people. We all went on maternity leave at the same time. We were all encouraged to come back on our own terms because we were all really valued. And that was fantastic,” says Dr. Jo Brewer, Chief Scientific Officer at Adaptimmune. Read more.

No drug for COVID: ‘the most successful failure in my life’
Laura Walker tells Nature why she moved to industry after her PhD in immunology and microbiology, and the challenges of developing a drug during a global pandemic. In March, Laura Walker left the biopharmaceutical company she had co-founded three years earlier to join Moderna as the head of its infectious disease biotherapeutics team in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Read more.

Unraveling connections between the brain and gut.


Under the direction of Vilcek Creative Promise Prizewinner Polina Anikeeva, MIT  engineers have designed optogenetic techniques for probing connections between the gut and the brain. In a new study, the researchers demonstrated that they could induce feelings of fullness or reward-seeking behavior in mice by manipulating cells of the intestine. Read more. Image credit: National Science Foundation (Wikipedia)

Interview: Women in Science - Pamela Adede and her hope for future generations of women to thrive in science. 
Pamela Adede is a seasoned computer scientist and data professional known for providing high quality service whilst employing her multi talents which include efficiency, analytical thinking, and fast learning. Read more.

Don’t get mad, get equal: putting an end to misogyny in science.
“Surviving as a woman in science shouldn’t be such a perilous and exhausting high-wire balancing act. We will all be more powerful and effective when female leaders are supported to be equitable participants in the diverse and holistic scientific organizations of the future,” Alison Bentley & Rachael Garrett write in an article for Nature News. Read more.

Interview ‘Designing a vaccine that covers all cancers is hard’: biotech pioneer Lindy Durrant.

“Cancer is my game,” says Prof. Lindy Durrant, an immunologist, founder and chief executive of Scancell, which is developing vaccines that could offer a needle-free protection against Covid as well as novel treatments against cancer. The immunologist who runs Scancell is trialing novel treatments to attack tumors, as well as needle-free Covid jabs. Read more. Image credit: University of Nottingham.

Women in Science: How Charco Neurotech's Lucy Jung is 'restoring joy' for Parkinson's patients.
Lucy Jung is the CEO and founder at Charco Neurotech, a medtech start-up which has developed the CEU1, a wearable device for Parkinson's, that uses vibrotactile stimulation to reduce symptoms of slowness and stiffness - resulting in improved movement. Biopharma Reporter spoke to her about her background, how she got involved in the Parkinson's space and her fascination for problem-solving. Read more.

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