{"id":167467,"date":"2025-09-24T13:56:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=167467"},"modified":"2025-09-24T13:57:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:57:33","slug":"bu-receives-major-multimillion-dollar-nih-grant-for-womens-health-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2025\/09\/24\/bu-receives-major-multimillion-dollar-nih-grant-for-womens-health-research\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Receives Major Multimillion Dollar NIH Grant for Women\u2019s Health Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women\u2019s Health program support will also spur investment in early-career faculty<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Alene Bouranova<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Boston University a prestigious $4.5 million grant to further women\u2019s health research and spur career growth for young investigators. The five-year award from the\u00a0<\/span>Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women\u2019s Health<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(BIRCWH, pronounced \u201cbirch\u201d) program, an NIH-funded research and career development initiative, will connect senior and junior faculty interested in women\u2019s health research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BIRCWH award reflects Boston University\u2019s dual mission: to educate and empower future leaders from all sectors of society and to conduct research that advances knowledge and delivers meaningful societal impact,\u201d says Kenneth Lutchen<\/a>, BU\u2019s vice president and associate provost for research as well as dean emeritus of the College of Engineering (ENG). \u201cBy investing in cross-disciplinary mentorship and discovery, BU is helping to drive a convergent approach necessary to address the challenges in women\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n

BU\u2019s BIRCWH grant provides funding for three early-career faculty members per year to participate in a two-year program. They will perform research under the mentorship of senior BU faculty, receive individualized career development support, and participate in regular research meetings and annual conferences. Research will focus largely on addiction science; maternal and child health; and sex influences on health outcomes.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Joyce Wong (BME, MSE)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The program will be led by Professor <\/span>Joyce Wong<\/a> (BME<\/a>, MSE<\/a>) of ENG, along with Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine faculty\u00a0<\/span>Emelia Benjamin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Elisha Wachman<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(CAMED\u201906). The three lead the BU\u00a0<\/span>Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research\u2019s Women\u2019s Health Affinity Research Collaborative<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(ARC) and say the BU BIRCWH program will boost the number of highly trained scientists tackling issues like maternal and reproductive health, as well as help disseminate more research in women\u2019s health areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen’s health, including addressing sex-based differences in healthcare, represents one of our most critical challenges,\u201d says Wong, a professor of biomedical engineering and of materials science and engineering whose research focuses on\u00a0<\/span>using bioengineering to support maternal and child health<\/a>. \u201cWe are thrilled by this opportunity, because the BU BIRCWH program uniquely integrates engineering, basic science, and clinical translational medicine\u2014perfectly aligning with BU\u2019s mission to tackle major societal challenges. This program, together with ARC, will unite our women\u2019s health research community to accelerate progress in this essential field.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read the full story at BU’s<\/em> The Brink<\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The grant will also spur investment in early-career faculty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":167512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,257,899,1194,1040,909],"tags":[367,562],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167467"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167515,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167467\/revisions\/167515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}