The relevance of sex and gender-sensitive medicine has become more evident during the last decade. It is clear that this is a central field in medical research and patient care and is important for most medical disciplines. Women and men can suffer from the same diseases but these may manifest themselves in different ways. This is mainly due to the different genetic and hormonal constitutions, which affect anatomy and physiology. It can result in different disease risks, patho-physiologies, symptoms and progression. In addition, sociocultural factors influence the disease process differently in men and women, generating a highly complex multifaceted situation. However, sex and gender differences in medical care as well as in research and teaching are still insufficiently considered. To bridge this gap, Prof. Dr. Anke Hinney and PD Dr. Andrea Kindler-Röhrborn have initiated a multidisciplinary training programme for next-generation MD and PhD researchers in basic, translational, and clinical research aspects of sex and gender-sensitive medicine, kicking off in October 2024.

"We regard the core as an interdisciplinary platform for knowledge and method transfer, a forum for scientific discussion, and a starting point for a network of early career researchers and alumni who are dedicated to fostering sex and gender-sensitive medicine," says Prof. Anke Hinney.

Immediately after the 4^th Berlin-Bochum-Memory-Symposium, the Collaborative Research Center SFB 1280 on extinction learning and the graduate schools IGSN (International Graduate School of Neuroscience at RUB) and BIOME (Graduate School of Biomedical Science at UDE) combined forces for a two-day symposium in Bochum with intense interaction with international keynote experts from around Europe and the United States. Four symposium rounds and brainstorm sessions were held. Topics and speakers included “Neural aspects of associative learning: Mechanisms and Methods” with Matthew Larkum, Sarah Ayash, and Florian Freudenberg; “Comparative hippocampal memory formation” with Tom Smulders, Hannah Payne, and Uwe Mayer; “Depression, Anxiety and Stress: Illuminating cognitive control” with Grant S. Shields, and Marloes Henckens; and “Modeling neural dynamics” with Franziska Bröke, Diana Burk, and Lorenzo Fontolan.

This event went a long way towards strengthening the synergy in this field between the participating institutions, namely the Ruhr University Bochum, the University of Duisburg-Essen's hospital, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at TU Dortmund and Philipps University Marburg.

BIOME's triple-core annual retreat participants gathered off-campus in Cologne again for a translational immunology/infectious diseases/tumour group exchange. The supporting doctoral orga-team consisting of Clara Roggendorf, Anne Petzold, Lorraine Muungani and Xi Wang decided on a broader approach to the selection of keynote speakers this year by inviting Ariane Pessentheiner (University of Graz) to share her experiences of segueing from classic post-doc research into science communications, while the BIOME alumna Anna-Lena Volckmar (University of Heidelberg) discussed the finer issues of In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR). Around eighty MD/PhD candidates presented progress updates on their research projects in talks and poster sessions, with Maren Soldierer winning the award for the best talk, and Sebastian Kromat, Antonia Belter and Lara Kaumanns each receiving prizes for their posters.

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The German Research Foundation (DFG) is supporting the establishment of a new research training group 2989 on Targeting Cellular Interfaces in Reperfused Acute Myocardial Infarction (TCI repAMI) by researchers from the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) with 7.5 million Euros. The research training group (RTG) team's focus is on the so-called acute myocardial infarction, commonly called a heart attack. In 2022 it was the second most common cause of death in Germany, after coronary heart disease. Even with optimal therapy and if the blocked coronary artery is quickly reopened (reperfusion), mortality is high. The consequences that reperfusion can have on patients are highly complex and not fully understood. The aim of the new RTG is to identify novel processes and targets for therapeutic approaches.

The speaker for the new RTG is Prof. Dr. Tienush Rassaf, Director of the Clinic for Cardiology and Angiology at the University Hospital Essen. In the funded RTG, the group includes experts from the heart and circulatory focus as well as the immunology/infectiology focus of the UDE Medical Faculty and the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS Dortmund).