In 2018, I launched the Innovation Center on Sex Differences in Medicine (ICON-✘) at Massachusetts General Hospital, to lead a group of experts across departments and disciplines and in collaboration with sister institutions and the Mass General Research Institute. ICON-✘’s mission is to leverage fundamental discoveries “from cells to society” about sex differences in the brain and body in order to develop sex-selective diagnostics and therapeutics and target them early for intervention and prevention. In 2020, the National Institutes of Health designated ICON-✘ an NIH Specialized Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) for Sex Differences in Medicine, one of only 11 in the country.The neuroimmune and vascular axes are major lines of communication across the brain and body. ICON-✘ is focusing on these pathways through the lens of hormones, genes, and metabolism to identify the causes of sex differences that cross disorders of the brain and body. We take a lifespan approach from prenatal development to aging to target these causes early in a sex-dependent way to attenuate disability and/or prevent illness later in life. We believe causes of sex differences are shared across a number of chronic diseases that contribute to understanding substantial comorbidities and side effects of pharmacology that usually target one organ system. ICON-✘’s main mission : making a difference by developing sex-selective therapies

This lab integrates scientists from clinical and basic neuroscience perspectives to address questions of why men and women are at different risks for psychiatric disorders and their comorbidity with general medical disorders, such as Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), and risk for brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. The lab takes a lifespan approach to investigations targeting naturalistic windows of opportunity for the study of Sex Differences when the brain and body are differentially flooded or depleted of gonadal hormones, e.g., fetal development and puberty, and, for female-specific periods, pregnancy and the menopausal transition compared to age-matched men. Circuitries of interest include stress response/mood/anxiety, ANS function, and memory. We are currently engaged in studies that involve the roles of steroid hormones, genes, metabolic, vascular, and/or immune function in understanding sex effects and their prenatal origins. We believe that an understanding of these pathways that impact multiple organ systems in sex-dependent ways will provide knowledge for the development of sex-dependent or sex-specific therapeutics that target comorbidity of disorders of the brain and heart.

Sex differences in the incidence and prevalence of diseases are pervasive. Understanding the nature of these differences and impact on treatment is critical for realizing precision medicine. We believe there are shared causal pathways that explain sex differences that cross organs and systems throughout the brain and body. This is not surprising since every cell has a sex, and gonadal hormones (that differ by sex) have impact throughout the body. However, medicine has been built primarily on studies of male animals and within departmental silos. Thus, therapies are not targeted to multiple organs nor incorporate sex differences.The Innovation Center on Se✘ Differences in Medicine (ICON-✘) is changing that.

At HMS for 30 years.

Dr. Goldstein represented women’s health and sex differences in medicine at the hospital administrative level at the BWH Research Oversight Committee. She also organized and directed a research advisory committee that brought together senior hospital leadership in women’s health and sex differences research across different departments and fields and levels of investigation at the basic, clinical and population levels.

Dr. Goldstein built a unique research infrastructure for the Connors Center at BWH to foster collaborative efforts to understand mechanisms that explain sex differences in health and disease across disciplines and methods of study and to provide a source of knowledge and training for future young scientists and clinicians in women’s health and sex differences in biology.

Long time advisor for gender equity in women’s careers in medicine.

Organized, oversaw and mentored investigators focused on sex differences in chronic psychiatric disorders at the Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Department of Psychiatry