As part of International Women’s Day, join us for an online talk from Dr Havovi Chichger about the sex-related limitations of personalised medicine.

Many scientists are hoping that personalised medicine is the future. This approach will ensure that the patient is at the centre of the healthcare system. However, when researchers develop treatment options in the laboratory, there is a focus on studies in male species. Our sex has a huge impact on whether we will get certain diseases, what type of symptoms we will have when we are ill, and how effective certain treatments will be in improving our health.

Havovi will discuss these matters in closer detail and consider the way research is moving to ensure that our sex does not define our medicine. Her research focuses on a range of cardiovascular diseases, from lung infection to diabetes, and how we can find treatment options for patients with these diseases.

In particular, she is interested in how our blood vessels function in these diseases and how, if we can improve the condition of our vasculature, we can improve the health of patients. Through these studies, she has been fascinated by how we, as researchers, study these diseases and what we can do to ensure the best possible experiments are performed to evaluate efficacy of treatment for all patients.

In 2011, Havovi earned her doctorate in physiology from University College London, which focused on studying the role of renal and small intestinal glucose transport across the epithelium in metabolic syndrome and diabetes. As a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University, Havovi’s research developed into vascular dysfunction in settings of disease including respiratory disease.

During her post-doctorate, she was awarded significant funding from the American Heart Association, published several peer-reviewed articles and participated in numerous clinical and basic research conference presentations (including invited and peer-reviewed oral presentations) on renal glucose transport, endocytosis, vascular function and respiratory disease.

Currently, Havovi is continuing her research on mechanisms which regulate endothelial and epithelial barrier function, with an emphasis on novel regulators of both barriers to treat patients with lung disease and diabetes.