October-December 2025 Connors Connection

Dear Connors Center Community,

Welcome to Connors Connection! This is your go-to source for the latest news from the Center, including exciting updates, publications, press highlights from our community of talented investigators, and information on upcoming events and awards. You’ll find each new edition featured on our website’s homepage and in the news section. If you would like to get email reminders when a new post is published, you can sign up here.

Connors Program Updates:

• Primavera Spagnolo, MD, PhD, formerly the Center’s Associate Director, is serving as Interim Executive Director of the Connors Center since Dr. Joffe’s departure on December 1. We are grateful to Dr. Spagnolo for serving in this role and look forward to her continued leadership as we enter this new chapter for the Center.
• The 8th Annual Connors Center Research Symposium was held in the Marshall Wolf Conference Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Tuesday, October 28th at 3:00pm. It was held in conjunction with the Brigham/Harvard Reproductive Outcomes of Stress & Aging (ROSA) Center, an NIH Specialized Center of Research Excellence on Sex Differences. Over 150 registered from the MGB system, Connors Center network, Greater Boston community, and beyond. Participants gathered in-person and virtually to celebrate the important work being done by Connors Center investigators. Speakers, shown to the right, included the keynote, Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD, Director of the Center for Innovation in Brain Science at the University of Arizona; Deborah Bartz, MD, MPH, Director of Education at the Connors Center; as well as recipients of Connors Centers grant awards and fellowships, ROSA Center associate scientists, and a Mass Life Sciences Center First Look awardee. Read more and watch a recording here.
• On November 19th, the Sex-Informed Research Collaborative Think Tank (SIRCTT) hosted its first in-person mixer event, pictured to the right, where members of the MGB sex-informed and women’s health research community can attend panels and learn from others within the MGB system as well as coming together to network with their colleagues. At this event, we were thrilled to be joined by Bhamini Vadalingiaham, MSc, MBA, Venture Associate,​ Mass General Brigham Innovation and Vesela Kovacheva, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anaesthesia, HMS and Director, Clinical and Translational Research, BWH who spoke to those present about translational thinking as a women’s health research. Watch the panel recording here. This fall, SIRCTT also hosted its second series of meetings for its educational and networking program cohorts, learn more about the program here.

Awards and Announcements:

• Connors Scientific Advisor JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH, MACP was honored with a lifetime Oral History by the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation’s Renaissance Woman project. The interview covers Manson’s early life experiences and inspirations, medical and public health training and past and current research and leadership roles. Watch the interview here.
• Connors Director of Stress and Adversity Cindy Liu, PhD received a mentoring award from the MGB Department of Psychiatry for opening doors and fostering the growth of others.
• ROSA Scientist Sidney Pereira, DVM, PhD received the Charles A. King Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Award for his project “Deciphering the Functional Role of OSR1 in Uterine Receptivity and Embryo Implantation.”
• IGNITE Awardee Louisa Sylvia, PhD received received a seed grant and will explore how a novel intervention can improve mood and overall well-being in individuals with bipolar disorder. Read more here.
• A ROSA publication, “Living near trees may boost the heart health of women during midlife” by ROSA Scientists Sheryl Rifas-Shiman, MPH, Izzuddin Aris, PhD, Jorge Chavarro, MD, ScD, and Emily Oken, MD, was selected as extramural paper of the month in October by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Read more here.
• Connors Research Scientist Amanda Koire, MD, PhD presented on “Risk Factors for Childbirth-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CB-PTSD) are Associated with CB-PTSD Screening in a U.S. Peripartum Cohort” and “Expanding Perinatal Psychiatric Training in U.S. Graduate Medical Education (GME) Programs ” at the Marcé of North America (MONA) Biannual Conference in November.
• WHISPR Awardee Irene Gonsalvez, MD, pictured to the right, presented at ENDO 2025 on “Oxytocin and Mood in Women with Disrupted Sleep”. Watch the recording here.

Press:

• Manson, JoAnn, MD, DrPH, MACP:
  • “Here’s Exactly How Much Protein to Eat If You’re on a GLP-1” Self. October 2025.
  • “Alcohol: Bad for Heart, Brain, and Cognition?” Medscape. October 2025.
  • “FDA removes long-standing warning from hormone-based menopause drugs” ABC 7. November 2025.
  • “Ultraprocessed Foods: Culprit in Type 2 Diabetes Risk?” Medscape. November 2025.

Publications:

• Aris, Izzuddin, PhD, Chavarro, Jorge, MD, ScD, Oken, Emily, MD: “Adolescent “Lean PCOS” Is Characterized by Higher Insulin Resistance and Adverse Adipokine Profile” J Clin Endocrinol Metab. December 2025.
• Aris, Izzuddin, PhD, Oken, Emily, MD: “Perceived discrimination and cardiovascular risk factors in mid-life women: results from Project Viva, a longitudinal cohort in the USA” BMJ Public Health. October 2025.
• Aris, Izzuddin, PhD, Oken, Emily, MD, Young, Jessica, PhD: “Estimating sex-specific population-level effects of limiting sugar-sweetened beverages or 100% fruit juices during childhood on insulin resistance, central adiposity, and glycemic outcomes in late adolescence” Am J Epidemiol. October 2025.
• Aris, Izzuddin, PhD: “Association of Maternal Prepregnancy BMI With Offspring Cardiometabolic Outcomes in Childhood” Obesity (Silver Spring). October 2025.
• Bartz, Deborah, MD, MPH: “The Rise and Fall and Rise of Pronatalism: A Disingenuous Policy that Harms the Health of People and Society” J Law Med Ethics. 2025.
• Chavarro, Jorge, MD, ScD, Mahalingaiah, Shruthi, MD: “Preconception, gestation, and childhood exposure to air pollution and risk of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in a US girls cohort study” Environ Int. November 2025.
• Cohn, Aviva, MD, Gonsalvez, Irene, MD, Grant, Leilah, PhD, Harder, Jessica, MD, Joffe, Hadine, MD, MSc, Kaiser, Ursula, MD, Klerman, Elizabeth, MD, PhD, Rahman, Shadab, PhD, Scheer, Frank, PhD, Wiley, Aleta, MPH, MSc: “Adverse cardiometabolic impacts of sleep fragmentation and estradiol suppression: An experimental model of menopause” J Clin Endocrinol Metab. November 2025.
• Dutta, Rohini, MBBS, MPH: “Obstetrician and gynaecologist engagement in global surgery: adding necessary value to the field” BMJ Glob Health. October 2025.
• Feldman, Natalie, MD, Koire, Amanda, MD, PhD, Liu, Cindy, PhD, Mittal, Leena. MD: “Childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD): Quantifying missed opportunities for intervention” Gen Hosp Psychiatry. Nov-Dec 2025.
• Gonsalvez, Irene, MD, Grant, Leilah, PhD, Harder, Jessica, MD, Joffe, Hadine, MD, MSc, Kim, Hannah, MSc, Rahman, Shadab, PhD, Spagnolo, Primavera, MD, PhD, Wiley, Aleta, MPH, MSc: “Impact of sleep fragmentation and estradiol suppression on positive and negative affect: Results of an experimental model of menopause” Psychoneuroendocrinology. November 2025.
• Hazra, Aditi, PhD, MPH: “Prevalence of Toxic Exposures Among Women Veterans With Breast or Gynecologic Cancers Receiving Veterans Affairs (VA) Care”, Mil Med. November 2025.
• Holsen, Laura, PhD, Sailer, Clara, MD, PhD: “Amygdala and insula activation in youth with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder in response to aversive food-specific fear images” Psychological Medicine. December 2025.
• Koire, Amanda, MD, PhD: “Protecting PRAMS: The Importance of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System for Perinatal Psychiatric Services”, Psychiatr Serv. November 2025.
• Liu, Cindy, PhD: “From NICU to home: meeting the mental health needs of families after discharge”,  J Perinatol. November 2025.
• Manson, JoAnn, MD, DrPH, MACP:
  • “Anthropometric indices of obesity and their relationships with diabetes risk by race and ethnicity among postmenopausal women”, Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. November 2025.
  • “Prospective associations between accelerometer-measured physical activity, sedentary behavior, and healthy longevity: the Women’s Health Accelerometry Collaboration”,  J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. November 2025.
  • “Racial differences in breast cancer-specific mortality and CVD-specific mortality after breast cancer in post-menopausal women”, Cardiooncology. November 2025.
  • “Follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and adiposity trajectories in postmenopausal women”, Climacteric. December 2025.
• Manson, JoAnn, MD, DrPH, MACP, Rexrode, Kathryn, MD, MPH: “Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Cardiovascular Diseases in Women With Vasomotor Symptoms: A Secondary Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Clinical Trials”, JAMA Intern Med. November 2025.
• Pace, Lydia, MD, MPH:
  • “Early experience scaling up a breast cancer early detection initiative integrated with cervical cancer screening in Rwanda”, BMJ Global Health. October 2025.
  • “Where U.S. Women Receive Primary Care: A Cross-Sectional Analysis”, J Gen Intern Med. November 2025.
  • “Evaluating the Implementation and Maintenance of a Breast Cancer Risk-Assessment and Prevention Program”, Ann Surg Oncol. November 2025.
• Rich-Edwards, Janet, ScD, MPH:
  • “Adverse pregnancy outcomes and development of short-term cardiovascular disease risk factors”, Am J Obstet Gynecol MFM. December 2025.
  • “A National Institute on Aging workshop on the long-term effects of pregnancy on aging”, Nat Aging. December 2025.
• Spagnolo, Primavera, MD, PhD: “Toward Inclusive, Evidence-Based rTMS Care for Patients With Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders”, Am J Psychiatry. December 2025.