We invite you to join us for an interactive symposium on sex and gender specific issues in transplantation as important, many which are important, and potentially under-recognized factors determining patient and transplant outcomes. Our symposium will connect clinicians, researchers, and transplant recipients from around the globe by combining in-person meeting at Herrenhausen Palace with virtual workshops.

The National Institute of Health (NIH), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and an increasing number of other funding agencies expect that sex as a biological variable will be factored into research designs, analyses, and reporting in vertebrate animal and human studies. The recognition of potential differences and their impact for science has been an important step forward. It reinforces the establishment of often unavailable, but necessary scientific insights. Sex refers to the biological and physiological differences, gender is seen as a social concept.

In contrast to the predominantly taken male perspective, our aim is to report the existing evidence from a female perspective and beyond. It starts by providing epidemiological findings on access and outcome in transplantation, followed by evaluating underlying and causative factors for known disparities. We will discuss with researchers, clinicians and recipients how to implement sex/gender related questions in basic and clinical research proposals. In addition to including patients’ concerns and expectations, we also want to shed light on the current situation and challenges female researchers, especially clinician-scientists, encounter in the field of transplantation.

We look forward to presenting a comprehensive overview of the current evidence and expect to identify areas where more basic and/or clinical research and/or education is needed, especially from a female patient-centered perspective and in support of female careers.

Best regards from Montreal, Los Angeles, Hannover and Sydney…