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Let’s talk about (biological) sex

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 23, pages 227–228 (2022)Cite this article

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You spent years investigating your beloved protein. You generated mouse models, found a phenotype and fixed it with a drug. You even used human cells to reveal a conserved mechanism. But a prestigious journal has rejected your manuscript because you did not include females. Here is why you should not be mad at them.

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Acknowledgements

Our research is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (ERCAdG 787470 ‘IntraGutSex’) and MRC intramural funding. I thank A. Arnold, P. Jump, N. Karp, S. Oertelt-Prigione and L. Schiebinger for comments on this manuscript and their inspiring perspectives on this topic. I am also grateful to P. Gaspar for assistance with the figure, and my colleagues in the MRC Working Group on Sex in Experimental Design for discussions that helped shape the content of this piece.

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  1. MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, London, UK

    Irene Miguel-Aliaga

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Irene Miguel-Aliaga

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  1. Irene Miguel-Aliaga
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Correspondence to Irene Miguel-Aliaga.

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Miguel-Aliaga, I. Let’s talk about (biological) sex. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 23, 227–228 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-022-00467-w

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