ASMB 2025 e-Symposia - Join Us On-line!

Intersection of Women’s Health and the ECM

March 26, 2025, 11:00am - 12:30pm US eastern

Organizers: Pilar de la Puente, PhD and Maria Gonzalez Porras, PhD

Featured Speaker: Valerie Weaver, PhD, Professor of Surgery, Director Center for Bioengineering & Tissue Regeneration, University California San Francisco (UCSF), "Forcing tumor initiation and progression"

Women’s health presents a multitude of biomedical challenges, including sex- and gender-specific conditions, alongside diseases and chronic disorders that affect women disproportionately. Emerging evidence demonstrates the important role of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in these conditions, from reproductive biology to disease pathogenesis, presenting exciting opportunities for innovation and improvement across the matrix biology community. The e-symposium will highlight current studies in women’s health and its intersection with the ECM, highlighting its role in tissue remodeling, fertility, cancer progression, and age-related disorders. By emphasizing matrix biology’s contribution to women’s health, this symposium aims to foster innovation and advance strategies that improve female health outcomes across the lifespan. The session will have a wide range of matrix scientists from all backgrounds, sex, and career stages.

Other Speakers

Brandon J. Vogt: Determining sex-specific drug combinations targeting aortic valve myofibroblast activation using a digital medicine platform
PhD Student, Department of Bioengineering, University of California, CA

Simona Plesselova, PhD: Reprogramming Hypoxic Immunologically Cold Ovarian Tumor: Targeting Extracellular Matrix (ECM) Remodeling
Postdoctoral Fellow, Cancer Biology and Immunotherapies, Sanford Research, SD

Nameer Kirma, PhD: Dietary stearic acid and adipokine PAI-1 stimulate oncogenic ECM in obesity-driven endometrial cancer
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health San Antonio

Casimiro Gerarduzzi: Sex-Specific Differences in Kidney Fibrosis: Enhanced Resistance in Female Mice Across Multiple Models of Renal Injury
Senior Researcher, Renal Fibrosis Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal

Register to attend

Future e-Symposia

ASMB is accepting proposals for e-Symposia. If you are interested in organizing a session, let us know.

E-symposium chair proposals should include the proposed topic title, a brief explanation of why your proposal would be of interest to the ASMB, the format for the event, and the names and affiliations of the discussion leaders and speakers. Further, please indicate what steps you will take to try and make your session as inclusive and diverse as possible. We will be happy to discuss your proposals with you. Potential chairs must be members of the ASMB. We encourage submissions from ASMB members at any career stage (including graduate students and post-docs) and welcome proposals from individuals or teams of two. More information can be found in the Call for e-Symposia proposals below.