For a long time, it was assumed that clinical pictures looked the same for all genders. Medical studies were generally carried out on male participants on the assumption that the results could simply be transferred to women and the third sex. It is only in recent years that researchers have realised that this was a mistake and are increasingly addressing this issue.

The lecture series ‘Sex and Gender in the Life Sciences’ at UDE, in which five collaborative research projects funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) are participating, focuses on the importance of gender-sensitive research for the life sciences. Following the successful launch in 2024, the second round is now underway.

Lecturers from the UDE and the universities and university hospitals of Munich, Berlin, Tübingen and Magdeburg will talk about how sex and gender aspects promote new findings in oncology, cardiology and the neurosciences, but also how possible gender-specific differences influence tumour metabolism.

The series of events is organised by the Center of Medical Biotechnology and the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for MRI as well as the Essen College of Gender Research.

The programme of the lecture series is available here: Sex and Gender in the Life Sciences