Women’s Brain Project (WBP) – a global discussion on sex and gender differences in brain
Men and women are different. We know that this is not necessarily true all the time. We also know by now, that gender is a fluid construct. When it comes to the brain however, these sex and gender differences do affect mental disease risk, frequency, severity, symptomatology and even our response to treatments.
“In my talk I will discuss the sex and gender differences in the brain and emphasise on how clear identification of such differences in diseases, diagnoses, and treatments, as well as novel technologies can be leveraged towards precision medicine.”
Dr. Maria Teresa Ferretti
is a neuroimmunologist, science advocate and external teacher at the Medical University of Vienna with over 10 years of international experience in the field of Alzheimer’s disease and a unique expertise on sex and gender differences.
She has a Master in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Cagliari and obtained a PhD in Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). Dr. Ferretti worked at Nitsch’s lab at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) as postdoc and group leader on the role of the immune system in Alzheimer’s.
2016, Maria Teresa co-founded the non-profit organization called ‘Women’s Brain Project’ (WBP), that studies sex- and gender-sensitive precision medicine for brain and mental diseases (e.g. Alzheimers, migraine, depression).
Her work as WBP Chief Scientific Officer has led to several scientific publications in leading journals including Nature, Science and PNAS, three TED-x talks, and coverage by both the national (Sonntagszeitung, SwissInfo, NZZ, Le Temps) and the international press (including BBC, The Independent, Sciences et Avenir, Financial Times, La Stampa, ELLE Italy).
As WBP Chief Scientific Officer she is a sought-after speaker, and gives regular talks, lectures and presentation, both at scientific and lay public meetings. She is a faculty member of the Course for Advance Studies (CAS) on gender medicine at University of Zurich (Switzerland) and the editor of the book ‘Sex differences in Alzheimer’s Disease’ published by Elsevier.
