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Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.
- With the upcoming trial of the disgraced Theranos CEO, you may be interested in the 2018 book which documents her meteoric rise and fall - Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou.
See below for more news about women in science
Please continue to share important news and opportunities with us so that we may share it with you, and others who are committed to supporting the careers of exceptional women in science.
Stay safe and sound,
Karla Shepard Rubinger
Executive Director
Rosalind Franklin Society
www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org
They still live in the shadow of Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes.Alice Zhang, chief executive of Verge Genomics, said in an article for The New York Times that comparisons to the disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes had initially confused her. “Though Theranos shut down in 2018, Ms. Holmes continues to loom large across the start-up world because of the audacity of her story, which has permeated popular culture and left behind a seemingly indelible image of how female founders can push boundaries.” Read more. Zhang recently spoke at our RFS End of Year 2020 Virtual Event about the path from PhD to CEO. Watch it now.
 Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman awarded Horwitz Prize for pioneering research on COVID-19 vaccines.
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman’s work represents a historic landmark in vaccine development: The COVID-19 vaccines are the first approved (for emergency use) that use mRNA. Karikó and Weissman are the 107th and 108th winners of the Horwitz Prize, which is awarded annually by Columbia University for groundbreaking work in medical science. Read more.
NASA’s Lynnae Quick awarded American Astronomical Society prize for outstanding achievement.
Dr. Lynnae C. Quick is a research scientist in planetary studies at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The award cited Dr. Quick’s innovative scientific work that focuses on geophysical processes writ large, reaching from the inner solar system, through the asteroid belt, to ocean worlds, and into the exoplanetary realm. Read more.
Lila Gleitman, who showed how children learn language, dies at 91.
Lila Gleitman, whose pioneering work in linguistics and cognitive science expanded our understanding of how language works and how children go about learning it, died on Aug. 8 at a hospital in Philadelphia, Clay Risen reports. She was 91. Read more.
Angela Milner obituary.
Angela Milner was a Natural History Museum palaeontologist who specialized in meat-eating dinosaurs and their direct descendants, the earliest birds. Several extinct animals have been named in Angela Milner's honor, and her influence on her colleagues and on the development of the subject, both in the UK and internationally, has been immense. Read more.
Building a better chemical factory—out of microbes.
Professor Kristala Jones Prather has made it practical to turn microbes into efficient producers of desired chemicals. She’s also working to reduce our dependence on petroleum, according to MIT Technology Review. “We are increasing the synthetic capacity of biological systems,” says Prather, who made MIT Technology Review’s TR35 list in 2007. “We need to push beyond what biology can naturally do and start getting it to make compounds that it doesn’t normally make.” Read more.
The future of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team is precarious.
The Afghan Girls Robotics Team made headlines in 2017 when they came to Washington for an international competition just a few blocks from the White House. The U.S., the European Union and 20 other nations issued a joint statement Wednesday saying, "We are deeply worried about Afghan women and girls, their rights to education, work and freedom of movement. We call on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee their protection." Read more.
Katie Galloway receives NIH award to develop foundational tools for cellular engineering.
Using a combination of stem cell biology, systems biology, synthetic biology, and chromatin engineering, the Galloway lab at MIT will define the molecular regulatory rules of cell-fate transitions. As a chemical engineer working in molecular systems biology, Galloway’s research focuses on elucidating the fundamental principles of integrating synthetic circuitry to drive cellular behaviors. Read more.
Female scientists set back by the pandemic may never make up lost time.
Changing how scientists credit each other could reduce inequality, according to a new study. The analysis of citations inequality shows that biased individual preferences systematically reduce the number of citations women receive. Since citations measure scientific impact, women receiving fewer citations find fewer professional opportunities. This affects all female scientists. Read more.
Women feel like imposters in disciplines that value ‘brilliance’.
According to a new study, academics who believe “brilliance” is a prerequisite for success in their field are more likely to doubt their abilities. It’s a problem that disproportionately affects women, particularly those from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, Mennatalla Ibrahim reports. Read more.
How this woman wants to level the playing field for women in STEM.
Entrepreneur Dora Palfi is the co-founder and CEO of ImagiLabs, a Sweden-based edtech company making products that empower girls with the skills and community to create with technology. “We believe that coding is a superpower. It’s the literacy of the next generation. By encouraging girls to learn programming, we are giving them the opportunity to be the inventors, entrepreneurs and changemakers that will help to design our future digital society.” Read more.
IF/THEN ambassadors find innovative ways to connect.
In September 2019, the AAAS IF/THEN Ambassadors program selected 125 women in STEM careers to serve as role models for middle-school girls. As part of the IF/THEN initiative, ambassadors were soon starring on television and on YouTube and working with girls in museums, classrooms, and Girl Scout meetings across the United States, Becky Ham reports for Science. Read more.
Academic institutions must do better to protect caregivers this fall.
In an opinion piece for the Scientific American, 500 Women Scientists implore those in leadership positions at schools, universities and workplaces that have not reimposed mask mandates to reexamine their positions on masking, and with science as a guide, act to put these protections in place given the pandemic resurgence. Read more.
The Partnership between NanoString and ROSALIND. The Experience of a Stem Cell Genomics and Microscopy Core in Sunny California.
In October 2020, NanoString® Technologies and ROSALIND announced a partnership to grant global access to the ROSALIND® Bioinformatics Platform for all nCounter users. Among the users, the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) is a hub for basic stem cell research in the United States. Elsa Molina runs the UCSD Stem Cell Genomics and Microscopy Core at the Sanford Consortium. In this interview, she talks about their experience using ROSALIND to analyze nCounter data. Read more.
Marianna Limas, Social Media Manager
Nilda Rivera, Partnership and Events Manager
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Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.
- In case you missed our GEN/RFS Women in Science webinar, you can watch it here! Dr. Amy Abernethy, President of Verily' s clinical research business, provided a view into their expansion into a full-scale clinical evidence generation platform. Her focus will continue to be making it easier and faster to run clinical studies with the goal of using clinical data to accelerate clinical trials. She noted that "the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of improving the clinical trials process, breaking down barriers to participation and speeding access to medicines."
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The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) has named Sharon Terry, MA as the 2021 recipient of the Advocacy Award. Terry is president and CEO of the Genetic Alliance, an organization engaging individuals, families, and communities to transform health. She was a past speaker at an RFS Board Meeting. Read more.
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Congratulations to the first recipient of the Sharon Begley-STAT Science Reporting Fellowship, Isabella Cueto, a Cuban American journalist. Read more.
See below for more news about women in science
Please continue to share important news and opportunities with us so that we may share it with you, and others who are committed to supporting the careers of exceptional women in science.
Stay safe and sound,
Karla Shepard Rubinger
Executive Director
Rosalind Franklin Society
www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org
The Rita Allen Foundation has named its 2021 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars. Congratulations to Ellen Foxman, an RFS Award winner who spoke at our 2019 Colloquium at the Wistar Institute! Read more.
Applications are open through December 1, 2021 for the next round of the Hanna Gray Fellows Program.
The goal of the program is to recruit and retain individuals from gender, racial, ethnic, and other groups underrepresented in the life sciences, including those individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. Read more.
Apply now for The Michelson Philanthropies & Science Prize for Immunology.
The prize focuses on transformative research in human immunology, with trans-disease applications to accelerate vaccine and immunotherapeutic discovery. Read more.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has selected the 2021 class of Gilliam adviser-student pairs as part of a program to advance diversity and inclusion in science. They represent the largest group of fellows selected in the Gilliam Program’s history. Read more.
NIH has awarded $50,000 each to 10 institutions for their efforts in enhancing faculty gender diversity.
On October 5, the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health will host a forum, Effective Approaches to Fostering Faculty Gender Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Celebrating Progress, to formally recognize and promote the winners’ effective, evidence-based practices, address challenges, and improve the existing career paradigm for many women in biomedical and behavioral science. Read more.
Meet the 50 women over 50 shaping the future of science, tech and art.
Forbes and Know Your Value released the list on Thursday as part of its “50 Over 50” series, which is dedicated to highlight women over the age of 50 who have achieved significant success later in life, often overcoming formidable odds or barriers. Read more.
Mattel's Barbie turns women of science, including COVID vaccine developer, into dolls.
British vaccinologist Sarah Gilbert is one of the six women Mattel Inc has recognized as role models in the fight against COVID-19. According to the toymaker, the five other honorees are U.S. health care workers Dr. Audrey Sue Cruz and emergency room nurse Amy O'Sullivan, Canadian doctor and advocate against systemic racism in health care Chicka Stacy Oriuwa, Brazilian biomedical researcher Dr. Jaqueline Goes de Jesus and Australian doctor and protective gown developer Kirby White. Read more.
More women than ever are starting careers in science.
Women are more likely to start a research career now than they were 20 years ago, according to a study of the publishing records of millions of researchers around the world. But they are less likely to continue their academic careers than are their male contemporaries, and in general publish fewer papers, writes Katharine Sanderson in an article for Nature. Read more.
Microbiologist Elisabeth Bik queried Covid research – that’s when the abuse and trolling began.
When Dr. Elisabeth Bik raised serious concerns about the methodology of a paper that claimed hydroxychloroquine was effective in treating Covid-19, the online trolling was relentless, writes Melissa Davey in an article for The Guardian. Dr. Bik says she became much more careful about posting personal information after attacks began, but was determined not to be intimidated. Read more.
Are women climate scientists judged for speaking out? Not so much, research suggests.
In a new study, Lauren Armstrong and George Adamson were the first to examine how climate scientists are perceived by other scientists when speaking in favor of particular policies in the media. What they found suggests women scientists may have less to fear from their peers than they might think. Read more.
Twist Bioscience ‘writes’ DNA on silicon chips, which can be used to fight COVID-19, develop precision medicines, and store your favorite Netflix show.
On this week’s Most Innovative Companies podcast, Twist Bioscience co-founder and CEO Emily Leproust talks about how her company is empowering the entire ecosystem of synthetic biology, which is booming. Last year, investors poured nearly $8 billion into related companies. Read more. Dr. Leproust was a recent speaker at the RFS Colloquium. You can see her presentation here.
She has stem cells in her crosshairs.
Agnieszka Czechowicz is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In her lab research, her medical practice, and her work as an entrepreneur, she focuses on people who suffer from severe diseases like bone marrow failure or acute myeloid leukemia, who can’t produce blood or immune cells the way they are supposed to. Read more.
New survey shows Los Angeles VCs outpacing national funding for women, POC-led businesses.
PledgeLA, a coalition of hundreds of venture capital and tech leaders working to increase equity and accountability around corporate diversity efforts, released the results of its diversity, equity, and inclusion survey. Read more.
Women participate less at conferences, even if gender-balanced.
If women are not visible at conferences, they cannot act as role models for junior academics, creating a self-perpetuating cycle. A new study suggests that increasing the number or visibility of female chairs increases the number of questions from women. Read more.
Marianna Limas, Social Media Manager
Nilda Rivera, Partnership and Events Manager
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Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.
Our Women in Science Webinar was terrific! Dr. Katalin Karikó talked about her pioneering research in mRNA vaccine technology. The Hungarian-born biochemist’s discoveries provided scientists with the tools necessary to develop mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. If you missed it, you can watch it here.
See below for more news about women in science
Please continue to share important news and opportunities with us so that we may share it with you, and others who are committed to supporting the careers of exceptional women in science.
Stay safe and sound,
Karla Shepard Rubinger
Executive Director
Rosalind Franklin Society
www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org
The Genome Writers Guild (GWG) and Rosalind Franklin Society have joined forces again to recognize amazing scientists with the Rosalind Franklin Medal. We invited the nominations of women working in the fields of genome engineering and synthetic biology; researchers in the early stage of their career, including graduate students, post-docs and assistant professors. Nominees from all walks of genomics and nucleic acid research, including academia, industry, and government were considered.
Congratulations to Natalia Gomez-Ospina, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics; Genetics and Stem Cell Transplantation, Medical Genetics at Stanford Bio-X, for receiving The Rosalind Franklin Medal. This award unites GWG’s core objectives of facilitating genome writing conversation, collaboration, and exposure with the Rosalind Franklin Society’s goals of enabling more women to achieve higher recognition, visibility, appointments and success in industry, academia, or government. Read more.
Congratulations to the other finalists:
- Janice Chen, Co-founder & CTO at Mammoth Biosciences, San Francisco, California.
- Jennifer Hamilton, Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow, Doudna Laboratory, UC Berkeley.
- Pratiksha Thakore, Senior Scientist, Department of Cellular and Tissue Genomics at Genentech.
Do you know someone deserving of the 2022 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research? This prestigious prize honors scientists whose seminal discovery or pioneering body of work has contributed to cancer prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. Read more.
Study highlights long road toward gender parity in the geosciences.
Women and people of color remain underrepresented along every step of the tenure track in every academic field in the United States. As a new MIT study shows, progress toward equitable representation for women in academia will require active, concerted, and sustained effort — and even then, change may be slow in coming. Read more.
President Biden has nominated bioengineer Laurie Locascio to lead the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Locascio is poised to lead NIST during a potentially transformative period for the agency. The Biden administration has proposed to vastly expand its advanced manufacturing programs, with a focus on microelectronics and supply chain security. It has also proposed large boosts for the agency’s research programs, with an emphasis on quantum science, artificial intelligence, climate research, bioengineering, and advanced communications, among other areas. Read more.
Mark Gordon Pictures grabs ‘The Code Breaker’ screen rights.
Mark Gordon Pictures acquired screen rights to “The Code Breaker,” based on Walter Isaacson’s “The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race.” The book was published March 9 by Simon & Schuster, and spent several weeks on the top of New York Times best sellers list. Read more. If you missed our recent interview with Dr Doudna, you can watch it here.
The parenting penalties faced by scientist mothers.
Mothers in science face systemic barriers that are real and universal—across the globe, in every field of research. It's time to start tearing down the maternal wall. A global survey found 34% of mothers in full-time science careers had left those positions after their first child. In the US, where family-leave policies are often sparse or absent, that proportion is as high as 43%. Read more.
Gap between number of men and women in science globally is slowly closing.
A study of the publications of almost 6 million researchers over 20 years suggests that men produce more papers than women, even after correcting for age. The data demonstrates that more women are beginning careers as publishing researchers. In chemistry, for every two women that started a publishing career in 2000, there were four men. Read more.
How a Novartis CTO uses engineering skills to help women in STEM.
A 2020 women’s leadership study from LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co. found that American women held less than 40% of corporate management positions. Here’s how one MIT Sloan alumna has pushed back on those statistics and used what she’s learned along the way to help those behind her. Read more.
She's a NASA astronaut. She's an entrepreneur. How 2 moms partnered to make science fashion for all.
The astronaut Karen Nyberg and entrepreneur Jaya Iyer partnered over their shared mission to help promote STEAM education and to break down gender stereotypes in clothing. Last month, the Netflix series Motherhood in Focus debuted an episode interviewing Nyberg about balancing her work in space and motherhood on earth. Read more.
Building a shark science community for women of color.
Jasmin Graham, along with Amani Webber-Schultz, Carlee Jackson, and Jaida Elcock, launched Minorities in Shark Sciences, or MISS for short, last year on Juneteenth. Their goal: create a community for women of color interested in studying sharks. On this Short Wave's episode, host Maddie Sofia talks with Jasmin about starting MISS and how it's uplifting women of color through hands-on workshops and community building. Read more.
Scientists understood physics of climate change in the 1800s – thanks to a woman named Eunice Foote.
Long before the current political divide over climate change, and even before the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), an American scientist named Eunice Foote documented the underlying cause of today’s climate change crisis. Read more.
Why women need male allies in the workplace – and why fighting everyday sexism enriches men too.
Research has shown that in the absence of male support, women have to shoulder the burden of battling routine workplace sexism such as misogynist humor and microaggressions on their own. This can lead to a sense of isolation, stress and exhaustion. But what difference can one un-sexist man make? Read more.
'Cool' insect photos in Leeds to inspire girls into science.
Extreme close-up pictures of insects showing their "phenomenal" designs are being shown as part of a push to get more girls into science. The exhibition, Dead Inspiring, opens at Leeds City Museum later in August. Curator Milo Phillips said: "We're using our collection to say look at this cool stuff which you could study." Read more.
Fewer citations for female authors of medical research.
Paula Chatterjee and Rachel Werner hope that their study will remind researchers to consider how they know about a paper, and help them to be more aware of the gender of the people whose work they cite. “I would hope it’s a conversation starter between men and women in academia to understand why those differences might be there,” she says. Read more.
Marianna Limas, Social Media Manager
Nilda Rivera, Partnership and Events Manager |
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.
We are excited to once again host several prestigious Women in Science webinars with our colleagues at GEN, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. On July 23, Dr. Katalin Karikó will talk about her pioneering research in mRNA vaccine technology. The Hungarian-born biochemist’s discoveries provided scientists with the tools necessary to develop mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. We are grateful for the support of this webinar from the Vilcek Foundation. Read more.
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RFS Briefings - July 6, 2021
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.
A few highlights to focus on here include upcoming events and awards:
- Nominations are open for the Fiercest Women in Life Sciences 2021. Each year at Fierce, they spotlight women who are leading the way in life sciences. From industry professionals and academics to venture capitalists and regulatory officials, women are making their mark all over biotech, pharma and medtech. Read more.
- Using just her eyes and memory, Elisabeth Bik has single-handedly identified thousands of studies containing potentially doctored scientific images. Read more.
- Let's recognize the Juneteenth holiday! For the biotech industry, here are some of the up-and-coming leaders who are Black. The focus here is on people who have made, and continue to make, an impact in science and entrepreneurship. Read more
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