Monthly Seminar Series | M-BRISC
Monthly Events from September - May
Join M-BRISC for the monthly scientific seminars running September through May! Sessions are one hour long and include both virtual and in person events, located in the Frankel CVC Library #2722K.
We welcome investigators working in all areas of medicine and research to communicate in the advancements and discussion in biological sex differences in cardiovascular disease and topics are open to basic science and clinical research related to biological sex differences and the direct/indirect impact on cardiovascular health.
Past Seminars
FY2026 Seminar Series
December 17, 2025
Mark J. Kohr, PhD, FAHA, FCVS
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
"Environmental Metals and the Heart: What does biological sex have to do with it?"
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Frank Conlon, PhD
Professor of Biology and Genetics, McAllister Heart Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
FY2025 Seminar Series
May 21, 2025
Khadijah Breathett, MD, MS, FACC, FAHA, FHFSA
Associate Professor of Medicine, Tenured, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology, Indiana University, Krannert Cardiovascular Research Center
"Strategies for Quality and Access to Advanced Heart Failure Care"
April 16, 2025
Helen E Collins, PhD, FAHA
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Center for Cardiometabolic Science, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, University of Louisville, Kentucky
"Understanding Pregnancy-Induced Cardiac Growth and its Reversal"
March 19, 2025
The M-BRISC leadership team invites you to join us virtually, to join in a discussion about the current program status and some exciting updates from the team. This will be an open discussion format, and we would love input from our members are we head into the next fiscal year planning for the M-BRISC program.
Please join us to discuss the following:
- Leadership updates
- Seminar speaker nomination and schedule for FY26
- Planning for new program offerings exclusive to our membership group
- Mentoring opportunities and the potential to tie into the seminar series
January 15, 2025
Sarah Cilvik, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Neonatology, Assistant Professor Pathology - Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
“The Impact of Advanced Maternal Age on Pregnancy Physiology and Long-Term Cardiovascular Health in Offspring”
December 18, 2024
Michael Mathis, MD
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Program Director, Anesthesiology, Medical School
“Sex-based Differences in the Preoperative Diagnosis of Heart Failure”
November 20, 2024
Angela Quain, MD, MS
Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Medical School
“The Placenta as Site of End-Organ Damage in Fontan Physiology: A study of placental pathology with maternal and fetal outcomes in pregnancies complicated by maternal single ventricle physiology.”
October 16, 2024
Iris Jaffe, MD, PhD
Executive Director, Molecular Cardiology Research Institute (MCRI) Cardiologist, Director, Vascular Biology Research Center within the MCRI, Elisa Kent Mendelsohn Professor, Molecular Cardiology, Tufts University School of Medicine
“Sex Differences in the Role of the Mineralocorticoid Receptor in Vascular Disease”
September 18, 2024
Caroline Jefferies, PhD
Associate Professor Medicine, Scientific Director, Center for Research in Women's Health and Sex Differences Medicine, Associate Professor Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
“Sex differences in Autoimmunity - Intersection between Immunometabolism and Epigenetics in Lupus”
FY2024 Seminar Series
May 15, 2024
Susan E. Howlett, PhD
Distinguished Research Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine (Geriatric Medicine), Dalhousie University
"Male-Female Differences in Cardiac Function Across the Life Course"
March 20, 2024
Heddwen Brooks, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology
Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans
"The VCD Mouse Model of Menopause and Perimenopause for the Study of Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease and the Metabolic Syndrome"
January 17, 2024
Susan K. Fried, PhD
Professor and Director of Translational Adipose Biology and Obesity in the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute, Mount Sinai
"Sex and Depot Differences in Human Adipose Tissues: adominal ≠ gluteal ≠ femoral"
December 20, 2023
Vernon Dolinsky, BSc, MSc, PhD
Professor and Associate Head
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Co-lead of the Diabetes Research (DREAM) Theme for youth diabetes research at the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, University of Manitoba
“The most important 9 months: Gestational diabetes and sex differences in the developmental origins of cardiovascular disease in the offspring.”
November 15, 2023
Samantha Schon, MD
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Michigan Medicine
"The Relationship Between Obesity and Female (In)Fertility"
October 18, 2023
Nandor Gabor Than, MD, PhD
CEO and Founder - Genesis Theranostix Group; Director - Systems Biology of Reproduction Lendulet Group; Research Professor, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
"Novel insights into the distinct pathomechanisms of preeclampsia give the potential for early and effective screening and cardiovascular disease prevention."
September 20, 2023
Arpita Vyas, MD, DCH
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Endocrinology
"The Journey of the Heart from the Womb to the Tomb"
FY2023 Seminar Series
May 17, 2023
U54 Specialized Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences Brainstorming Event
The M-BRISC leadership team is hosting a group brainstorming session for the last seminar date of the season. Please join us to participate in a brainstorming session for the NIH U54 SCORE Grant. Our aim for this meeting is to work collaboratively, pulling in disciplinaries across the institution to identify potential application themes. If you are interested in working with our group on this application, please attend in-person.
April 19, 2023
William Rainey, PhD
Jerome W Conn Collegiate Professor, Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and Professor of Internal Medicine, Medical School
"Sexual dimorphism in the causes of primary aldosteronism"
March 15, 2023
Murat Yaman, PhD
Research Fellow, Pediatrics, Medical School
"Estrogen-driven Deep Vein Thrombosis: Drug Screening Studies Using Zebrafish Model Systems"
January 18, 2023
Sarah England, PhD
Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Medicine, Vice Chair of Research and Professor, Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Interim Director, Center for Reproductive Health Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine
"Chronodisruption – A Potential Risk for Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes"
December 21, 2022
Jennifer DuPont, PhD
Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
Investigator, Molecular Cardiology Research Institute
Director, Vascular Function Core
"Sex differences in vascular aging"
November 16, 2022
Sundeep Kalantry, PhD
Professor of Human Genetics, University of Michigan
"Sex-specific Functions of the X chromosome-encoded Kdm5c Gene"
October 19, 2022
John Stafford, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University
"Sex Difference in Liver Lipoprotein Metabolism and Atherosclerosis Risk"
September 21, 2022
Richard Miller, MD, PhD
Professor of Pathology, Institute of Gerontology, Department of Pathology, Michigan Medicine
"Drugs that Slow Aging in Male (and Sometime Female) Mice"
FY2022 Seminar Series
May 24, 2022
Aarti Asnani, MD
Director, Cardio-Oncology Program | Director, Cardiology Grand Rounds
Associate Program Director for Resident Research, Department of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
"Sexual Dimorphism in Cancer Therapy-Associated Cardiovascular Toxicity"
April 26, 2022
Nisha I. Parikh, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco
“Reproductive and pregnancy effects on cardiovascular disease”
March 22, 2022
Jake Lusis, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Human Genetics, Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics
University of California, Los Angeles
“Sex differences in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases”
January 25, 2021
Corey Ventetuolo, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Services, Policy, and Practice
Brown University
“Sexual Dimorphism and Endotyping in Pulmonary Vascular Disease”
December 15, 2021
Denise C. Cornelius, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center
"Innate-Adaptive Immune Crosstalk in the Pathophysiology of Preeclampsia"
November 23, 2021
Mark Kohr, PhD, FAHA, FCVS
Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
"S-nitrosoglutathione reductase in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury: What does biological sex have to do with it?"
October 26, 2021
Morgan Salmon, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Cardiac Surgery, University of Michigan
"Biological Sex and Aortic Aneurysms"
FY2021 Seminar Series
April 22, 2021
Daniela Cihakova, MD, PhD
Associate Professor Department of
Pathology, Division Immunology
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Associate Director, Diagnostic Immunology Lab
John Hopkins University
Nisha Gilotra, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Director, Heart Failure Disease Management, HF Bridge Clinic
Director, Cardiac Sarcoidosis Program
Advanced Heart Failure/Transplant Cardiology, Division of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins Hospital
"Inflammatory Cardiomyopathies: a look at sex differences from bedside to bench"
March 25, 2021
Johann Gudjonsson, MD, PhD
Arthur C. Curtis Professor of Skin Molecular Immunology
Associate Professor, Dermatology
Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Emerging Scholar
"Why are Autoimmune Diseases More Common in Women - Sexual Dimorphism in Autoimmunity"
February 25, 2021
Durga Singer, MD
Valerie Castle Opipari M.D. Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and Assistant Dean, Faculty Affairs, University of Michigan Medical School
"Sex Differences in Obesity Induced Inflammation"
January 28, 2021
Nitin Kumar, PhD
Research Fellow
Cardiovascular Research, Department of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan
“Sex differences in endothelial dysfunction in COVID and mineralocorticoid antagonism as a therapeutic strategy”
December 17, 2020
Nanette Wenger, MD
Professor of Medicine (Emeritus) in the Division of Cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine
“Transforming cardiovascular prevention for women: time for the Pygmalion construct to end.”
November 19, 2020
Join us to engage with current and potential researchers throughout Michigan Medicine, from both basic and translational sciences to investigate topics related to sex differences in cardiovascular health. We’ve partnered with FCVC educational program, Cardiovascular Medicine Grand Rounds, to host a series of rapid-fires talks from 11:00AM - 12PM.
J. Brian Byrd, MD, MS
Assistant Professor
Internal Medicine-Cardiology
Sarah Graham, PhD
Research Area Specialist Lead
Internal Medicine-Cardiology
Ashley Hesson, MD, PhD
Research Fellow, Obstetrics and Gynecology and
Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Olesya Plazyo, PhD
Research Fellow, Dermatology
Jordan Shavit, MD, PhD
Associate Professor and Henry and
Mala Dorfman Family Professor of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology,
Department of Pediatrics
Laurie Svoboda, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Health Sciences
University of Michigan School of Public Health
Secretary-Treasurer, Michigan Regional Chapter of the Society of Toxicology
October 29, 2020
Colleen E. Clancy, PhD
Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel
Professor, Departments of Physiology, Membrane Biology, and Pharmacology, UC Davis Health
“Sex, drugs and funky rhythms”
September 24, 2020
DeLisa Fairweather, PhD
Director of Translational
Research & Associate Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine
Mayo Clinic
"Sex differences in myocardial inflammation: update on COVID-19"
Contact Us
If you are interested in speaking or you have a speaker you would like to nominate, please email your information to: [email protected].
