Grant: Catalyst Grant: Sex as a Variable in Biomedical Research

Our goal is to understand why pregnancies with a female fetus are less vulnerable to infection, preterm birth and other adverse outcomes, than those with a male fetus. At the most basic level, the only difference between males and females is that males generally have one X and one Y chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes. In females, most of the genes on of the two X's in are typically turned off in each cell to equalize gene dosage between the sexes; However, this process appears to be relatively sloppy in the placenta, the organ upon which the fetus depends on for normal growth and development. We expect that sex-differences in placental biology likely drive a wide-range of downstream effects on fetal health including susceptibility to infection and preterm birth. We also hope to bring attention to some of the fundamental biological differences between the sexes that influence how different early in utero exposures might affect infant development in different ways, depending on sex.