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On the 12th of December the EOSC4Cancer Workshop “Sex and Gender Dimension in Cancer Research” was held with 20 consortium members and partners in presence, from physicians and scientists to analysts and patient advocates. The workshop commenced with an Introduction to Sex and Gender in the Cancer Research landscape, held by project leader Salvador Capella-Gutierrez from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and Rabea Richter from empirica.
This introduction explored EOSC4Cancer, the sex and gender dimensions therein, and their place within the EU Mission on Cancer and the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. Special attention was paid to the Bioinfo4Women initiative, introduced by Alba Jené, which was created at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, aiming to promote research done by women in computational biology, especially young career researchers.
The rest of the workshop focused on the topic of Navigating the Sex and Gender Dimensions through Cancer Research Projects. These sessions were moderated by Átia Cortés, Davide Cirillo, and Olfat Khannous Lleiffe from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. First in line was an introduction to the life cycle of a research project and the development of the sex and gender dimension throughout it, from the proposal stage to experimental design. This was focused on sex-specific variables to be taken into account when designing an experiment, performing data collection, and analysis.
The discussion ensued with an exchange of examples of experimental designs where sex and gender are taken into account, from a microbiome analytic design and gut microbiome-based AI models, to the EOSC4Cancer gender dimension, all aimed towards exploring and understanding the integration of the sex and gender dimension in life sciences research. The last part of the discussion centered towards sharing personal experiences of the inclusion of sex and gender understanding in projects and everyday discussions.
This series of discussions concluded in a wrap-up, where all participants shared their perspective on what was discussed throughout the day and how it can be implemented in EOSC4Cancer in a meaningful manner. The ultimate goal is to ensure that the sex and gender dimension is a variable that is always taken into account when developing an EU research project. Creating a platform bringing together different digital aspects regarding sex and gender could be a good start, and studies that do not reflect this data and recommendations could be rejected or penalized. Being proactive regarding this matter could incentivize the community and lead to more inclusivity.
We thank everyone who was involved in these discussions! Make sure to learn more about Bioinfo4Women on their official website.
