Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News Feature
  • Published:

The missing sex

For most of its history, biomedical research and clinical testing has neglected over half of the world’s population. Finally, researchers and funders are starting to recognize the importance of sex differences.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Rationale for single-sex studies.
Fig. 2: Sex-based gene expression.

References

  1. Abd-Elrahman, K. et al. Sci. Signal. 13, eabd2494 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Zucker, I. & Prendergast, B. J. Biol. Sex Differ. 11, 32 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mogil, J. S. & Chanda, M. L. Pain 117, 1–5 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Becker, J. B. et al. Biol. Sex Differ. 7, 34 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Dance, A. Nature 567, 448–450 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kokras, N., Hodes, G. E., Bangasser, D. A. & Dalla, C. Br. J. Pharmacol 176, 4090–4106 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Okine, T., Shepard, R., Lemanski, E. & Coutellier, L. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 14, 581360 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wellman, C. L. et al. J. Neurosci. 38, 9423–9432 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Mogil, J. S. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 21, 353–365 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Woitowich, N. C., Beery, A. & Woodruff, T. eLife 9, e56344 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Shansky, R. Science 364, 825–826 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Eck, S. R. et al. Biol. Psychiatry 88, 566–575 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Oliva, M. et al. Science 369, eaba3066 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Seydel, C. The missing sex. Nat Biotechnol 39, 260–265 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00844-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00844-4

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing