Emory Specialized Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences

Emory University, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The overarching goal of this Specialized Centers of Research Excellence on Sex Differences (Emory SCORE) renewal application is to advance women’s health through a comprehensive investigation of the influence of sex on infectious diseases. A unifying theme of our program will be to promote the normalization of sex as a biological variable (SABV) in biomedical and biobehavioral research. Our Leadership Administrative Core (LAC) has promoted the NIH SCORE’s vision of normalizing SABV in research in multiple ways, including the development of an annual international SABV workshop (now in its 3rd year), the organization of a monthly women’s health research seminar series, and the co-sponsorship (with the Johns Hopkins SCORE) of the first ever Gordon Research Conference on Sex Differences in Immunity. The LAC also nurtured the development of next-generation leaders in the field. Simultaneously, our Career Enhancement Core (CEC) has promoted the national SCORE’s interests by initiating work to establish common metrics for CEC evaluation across all SCORE programs and through an organized program of funding, training, mentoring, and professional development activities while the Biostatistics Resource Core (BRC) has ensured rigor and reproducibility in all SCORE-supported projects and publications. During the initial cycle, our integrated research projects focused on using HIV as a model to probe the influence of biological sex on microbial-host-pathogen interactions. We are now well positioned to build on our work to date and expand our investigation to explore the role of the gut. Driven by the scientific evidence that low estrogen and chronic HIV independently induces dysbiosis, disrupts gut integrity and leads to microbial translocation resulting in immune dysregulation, we will focus our work in this renewal cycle on the combined effects of ovarian deficiency and HIV on the gut, the largest immune organ in the body. The unifying hypothesis for the three interlinked research projects is that ovarian deficiency and HIV co-act in aging women to enhance the effects of a leaky gut, leading to associated immune dysregulation and end-organ injuries; and that psychosocial factors may enhance these effects. The gut may be a target for manipulation via diet, probiotics, fecal transplantation, etc., to improve the health of women with HIV or other chronic infections. We propose the following Overall Aims: 1) Leverage resources through the LAC and CEC to foster career and leadership development and advance standards and policies that normalize the consideration of SABV in all research; 2) Expand the BRC into a Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Resource Core (BBRC) to enhance rigor and the provision of analytical support and data management/integration in alignment with our scientific aims; and 3) Implement 3 interlinked Research Projects to evaluate how HIV and low estrogen state co-act in women living with HIV to exacerbate leaky gut/immune dysregulation and the progression of non-AIDS age-related co-morbidities (NACMs) in the bone, brain, and heart.