Sex Matters - My Winter School Experience

'Sex, Hormones and the Brain' was the title that convinced me to head off to southern Germany and participate in a conference [1].
Being part of it turned out to introduce me to a vibrant research landscape, in Tübingen and beyond. The winter school was organized by the Materiki Network of Universities (MNU) [2], connecting universities across Europe, America and Australia. One of its foci is integrative neuroscience, for which the Center for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) in Tübingen was a perfect match. The city itself is very picturesque and worth a visit on its own. 

As the first symposium ‘Sex hormones and mood‘ started, I could immediately sense the open-minded and supportive atmosphere. Here, researchers were facing a part of science that often is overlooked elsewhere. I learned how important sex hormone fluctuations and the hormone-brain interface itself can be for mood disorders, cognition, memory and even brain connectivity. Talks and posters ranged from sex differences to gender dysphoria, and from basic brain functions to clinical implications. Not only the topic, but also the participants were open-minded and fostered a warm and welcoming spirit that really showed at a museum dinner party that featured nice food and live music and offered the possibility to closely interact with the speakers.

Their talks were inspiring and included some very well-known scientists like Inger Sundström Poromaa (Uppsala), Ute Habel (Aachen) or Niels Birbaumer (Tübingen). Of three parallel ‘Meet an expert‘ sessions, I chose 'Women in Academia: the path to a successful career and work-life balance'. It offered the wonderful opportunity to meet three successful female scientists at once. Getting to know such role models motivated me a lot and once again pointed out how important it is to help each other in science, rather than to compete.

So, what should you take home from this?
1)   Whenever you start a new project: consider sex and hormones as a crucial influence.
2)   As soon as you see an upcoming neuroscience winter school in Tübingen: register!

by Annika Reinhold, MSc Student MedNeuro


[1] http://bit.ly/2EKn16w
[2]http://bit.ly/2o8syJC