The Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health hosted the 8th annual Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Stress Program of Research (WHISPR) Symposium and Awardee Presentation in the Marshall Wolf Conference Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025. It was held in conjunction with the Brigham/Harvard Reproductive Outcomes of Stress & Aging (ROSA) Center, an NIH Specialized Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences. Over 100 individuals registered to attend in person and virtually from the Connors Center, the MGB system, the greater Boston community, and beyond.

Watch the Symposium Here

WHISPR aims to advance our understanding of how physiologic and psychological stress affect women’s health and disease by supporting pilot projects, facilitating interactions among WHISPR investigators and other stress researchers, and hosting an annual scientific symposium for the BWH academic community. Since 2017, the WHISPR program has awarded 15 early career investigators with yearlong awards and hosted 8 symposia to discuss stress and women’s health. The WHISPR Awards and Symposium are made possible through the Gretchen S. Fish Fund for Women’s Health and Stress Research.

Alfonso Abizaid, PhD, delivered the keynote address entitled “Bridging the Gap: the Metabolic Stress Response to Social Stress in Females.” Dr. Abizaid is a full tenured Professor of Neuroscience at Carelton University in Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Abizaid’s research is focused on the role of ghrelin in the regulation of energy balance in response to environmental challenges that include stress, the costs of reproduction, and the impact of aging in male and female mammals including humans. In addition, Dr. Abizaid is the Director of the Canadian Health Adaptations, Innovations, and Mobilization (CHAIM) Centre and the Carleton University Stress Trauma and Resilience (CUStar) work Group. These two groups are research centers focused on the promotion of interdisciplinary research and knowledge mobilization. In his talk, Dr. Abizaid discussed the role of ghrelin secretion and VTA activation in female mouse models’ mesolimbic dopaminergic system through the endocannabinoid system. His experimental data demonstrated how social defeat stress affects increased food intake in correlation with ghrelin secretion, which may be a coping mechanism in the face of chronic social stressors. Dr. Abizaid suggested that there are sex differences in responses to ghrelin, and in ghrelin section during stress responses. Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc (Executive Director of the Connors Center) provided introductory remarks and Laura Holsen, PhD (Connors Center Director of Research Training) facilitated the Q&A session with Dr. Abizaid.

Victor Navarro, PhD provided brief remarks on “Neuronal Mechanisms Mediating Vasomotor Symptoms: From Mice to Humans.” Dr. Navarro is the President of the Pan American Neuroendocrine Society, a Principal Investigator in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In addition, Dr. Navarro works closely with the Connors Center as a Project Lead for the Reproductive Outcomes of Stress and Aging (ROSA) Center, one of 11 NIH SCORE Centers throughout the country. He discussed the biomechanics of menopausal hot flashes, LH pulses, and how these appear in mouse models. He shared experimental data which provided evidence of KNDy neuronal action driving fluctuations in LH levels. Finally, he explained how these analyses in mice translate to human symptoms during menopause. Laura Holsen, PhD, Director of Research Training at the Connors Center, provided introductory remarks.

Following these talks, the 2025 WHISPR Awardee, Dr. Poganik, was introduced and provided an overview of his awarded project. Jesse Poganik, PhD is an Investigator in the Division of Genetics at the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is also an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Poganik presented “Leveraging Proteomic Models of Biological Age to Improve Pregnancy Outcomes.” Laura Holsen, PhD, introduced the awardee and facilitated the Q&A session. The event closed with a networking reception.

Thank you to all speakers, moderators, reviewers, and attendees for support and engaging with the important research funded by the Connors Center and making this event a success!

This program was established with a generous gift from the Gretchen S. Fish Fund for Women’s Health and Stress Research.