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Incorporating sex as a biological variable in neuroscience: what do we gain?

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 18, pages 707–708 (2017)Cite this article

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New policies requiring preclinical studies to incorporate sex as a biological variable are impacting neuroscience research. It is too soon to know whether this change justifies the administrative and financial burdens that it imposes; however, the potential gains in fundamental knowledge and therapeutic target identification are likely to outweigh the potential costs.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) now requires that scientists incorporate sex as a biological variable (SABV) in its funded vertebrate animal research (NIH notice) by considering whether the system under study operates differently in the two sexes through the comparison of males and females in at least some key experiments. This recently implemented policy follows the less prescriptive requirements of Canadian and European funding agencies (see Gendered Innovations summary).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology and Program in Neuroscience, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, 21210, Maryland, USA

    Margaret M. McCarthy

  2. Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, 60208, Illinois, USA

    Catherine S. Woolley

  3. Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology of the Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Arthur P. Arnold

Authors
  1. Margaret M. McCarthy
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  2. Catherine S. Woolley
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  3. Arthur P. Arnold
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Correspondence to Margaret M. McCarthy.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Canadian Institute of Health Research Sex, Gender and Health Research Guide

Gendered Innovations list of sex and gender policies at major granting agencies world wide

NIH notice

Open FDA

United States GAO report

Wonkblog Bad Medicine: the awful drug reactions Americans report

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McCarthy, M., Woolley, C. & Arnold, A. Incorporating sex as a biological variable in neuroscience: what do we gain?. Nat Rev Neurosci 18, 707–708 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.137

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