From Discovery to Impact Symposium - Women’s Health Research at Yale & SWHR
August 27, 2026Transcript
- 00:03- Women's health research is not a niche topic.
- 00:06It is not a footnote.
- 00:08It is front and center precision medicine.
- 00:16Our mission to improve the lives of women
- 00:19and through that lives of everyone through collaboration.
- 00:23Whether it's in discovery, in education, translation, or dissemination.
- 00:36- Progress has come through the persistence
- 00:38and important work of researchers, clinicians,
- 00:40advocates, policymakers, and many more.
- 00:44One of the most exciting recent developments
- 00:46is the launch of the Women's Health Research at Yale Collaborative,
- 00:49Yale's new interdisciplinary research hub centered on women's health.
- 00:53It brings together more than 250 faculty members,
- 00:57trainees, clinicians and advocates from ten schools and 39 departments.
- 01:06- What do we mean when we talk about women's health?
- 01:09It is so much more than sexual and reproductive health
- 01:12or maternal and child health, as it's often been simplified to.
- 01:16- Women actually spend 25% more time in poor health than men do,
- 01:20the majority of this gap is happening during women's prime working years,
- 01:24and so when you translate that into lost economic productivity,
- 01:28to the tune of $1 trillion of global GDP contributions.
- 01:38- Right now, we have an unprecedented opportunity
- 01:42to change the trajectory of health for more than half the population.
- 01:46We’re at a pivotal moment for investment in innovation in women's health.
- 01:51- Good science that includes women's health research is an irrepressible endeavor,
- 01:56and I look forward to watching this area of inquiry grow and flourish,
- 02:00and to following your careers and your important work.
- 02:13- Our current research is discovering that aging,
- 02:17and especially inflammation,
- 02:19dysregulated the stress response so it can no longer be controlled,
- 02:24and if we end up with toxic levels of calcium,
- 02:28that can set off a cascade that leads to Alzheimer's pathology.
- 02:33We're now working on developing treatments
- 02:36to prevent Alzheimer's disease at its earliest stages.
- 02:41So in my lab, we make use of variation
- 02:45in information and biological systems
- 02:47such as the genome or the epigenome,
- 02:49to derive biomarkers that we can use to predict
- 02:52both maternal and child health states.
- 02:54How can we harness the plasticity of pregnancy
- 02:57to improve long term outcomes for pregnant individuals?
- 03:00- So my lab focuses on developing new treatments for tobacco use
- 03:04and we're really interested in technology as an innovative treatment tool.
- 03:08Wearables can provide personalized health feedback,
- 03:11and studies have shown that this can promote behavior change.
- 03:19- When we see increases in hope,
- 03:21it's better for women.
- 03:22It's also better for families.
- 03:25It's better for the health care system
- 03:27and it's better for employers.
- 03:29Hope is just as powerful as a prescription.
- 03:46- I hope today showed what collaboration can achieve.
- 03:48We are just getting started.