Through the First.In.Women® Precision Medicine Platform, the Connors Center is thrilled to collaborate with the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) and to provide grants and support early-career researchers through the First Look Awards. The goal of this grant program is to support translational research at Massachusetts research institutions that furthers our understanding of sex-differences, especially for diseases or conditions that affect women exclusively, predominately, or differentially. The First Look Awards fall within our First.In.Women Precision Medicine Platform, which seeks to promote translational investigation to ensure that novel therapeutics are developed to optimize health for both women and men and provide early career grant support to sex-differences focused investigators.
Joyce Wong, PhD
2025 Awardee
Boston University
“Identifying Mediators of Tubal Infertility from Upper Reproductive Tract Infections in a Fallopian Tube-On-A-Chip”
Ursula Kaiser, MD
2025 Awardee
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School
“Targeting the Role of OSR1 in Embryo Implantation: A Promising Approach to Improve Management of Recurrent Implantation Failure (RIF)”
Juan Gnecco, PhD
2025 Awardee
Tufts University
“Development of CRISPR/Cas9-Engineered Organoid Model to Reveal Genetic Origins of Endometriosis”
Therese Rajasekera, PhD
2025 Awardee
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“Uncovering the Crosstalk Between the Gut and Vaginal Microbiota Ecosystems and Its Role in Brain Health and Disease”
Jie Shen, PhD
2025 Awardee
Northeastern University
“Accelerating Women’s Health Solutions: A Bioengineered Vaginal Tissue Model for Modern Drug Development and Testing”
