Women's Health Research Day
Thank you to all the 2026 Women's Health Research Day participants and presenters!
Keynote Speaker: Liisa Galea, PhD
"Women's Brain Health across the Lifespan: Science, Risk and Opportunity"
Liisa Galea, PhD, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto, presented a keynote talk on the sex differences that exist in brain disorders. Dr. Galea remarked that not all estrogens influence brain plasticity equally, that pregnancy history influences how the brain reacts to estrogens in mid-life, and these findings may help understand why menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) findings are equivocal on brain health in menopausal females. To understand complex brain disorders, such as those surrounding mental health, it is important to recognize diversity in our pre- and clinical modelling to lead to better health outcomes for all.
Click here for a recording of Dr. Galea’s keynote presentation.
Congratulations to the 2026 poster award winners:
Abigiya Abate, “Sex Matters: Molecular and Structural Differences in TTN- and LMNA-Associated Cardiomyopathies”
Chelsea Walker-Mao, DrPH(c), MPH, “Psychological birth trauma: prevalence, rates of care, and associated sociodemographic and perinatal characteristics among Colorado mothers”
Kara Fusco, BA, and Emma Conroy, MS, “Refinements in Understanding Human Milk-Derived Components in Their Use as “Liquid Breast Biopsies””
Kayla Sompel, “Social vulnerability increases risk for peripartum cardiomyopathy with racial differences”
Kerstin C. Creutzberg, “Paternal stress alters germ cell function and embryonic development rates”
Phinea Romero, “Activation of P2 purinergic receptors rescues sex-dependent neurovascular uncoupling in an autism model”