Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

Much of the knowledge about diseases, treatment, and drug development are based on research results of male subjects, ignoring the possibility of gender differences and inferring that what works for men will work for women as well. Applying results of clinical studies that include only men affects women adversely.  Even though there has been a significant growth in health research regarding key differences between men and women, women are still underrepresented in many research areas. The Howell Foundation's key initiatives are focused on guaranteeing an emphasis on all areas of research that may affect women’s health, promoting the need for further women’s health research, avoiding research bias by addressing the backlog of research efforts that include women, and ensuring that all the progress in research is integrated in educational publications and information sources available to our community. It has only been a little over 25 years since the National Institutes of...

Pictured above from left to right Taylor Bergstrom, Dr. Carole Banka and Deepika Suresh.  On May 22, 2016, the Kappa Beta Chapter at UCSD was installed as the newest chapter of the Alpha Phi International Fraternity.  What, you may ask, might this have to do with the Howell Foundation? Those who attended our May luncheon will remember that Deepika Suresh (a past Howell Foundation scholar) and Taylor Bergstrom, president of the new Alpha Phi chapter, made a brief presentation to inform our audience that the chapter had chosen the Howell Foundation to receive their installation donation. In donating to the Howell Foundation they help make possible a scholarship for another undergraduate to pursue research. The Alpha Phi Foundation, the charitable arm of the sorority, makes a donation each time a new chapter is installed. Supporting efforts to improve heart disease in women is their mission and, in making this donation, they have recognized our support of research and out...

Come and meet her at the Howell Foundation Lecture "Small Lifestyle Changes for Improving Women's Health" on May 20th.  The Howell Foundation announced that Emily Judd was awarded the Cher Conner Scholarship in April, 2016.  She was one of the highest rated applicants.  Barbara Parry, M.D., in her letter of recommendation notes that Emily is "probably the best undergraduate we have had working in our laboratory in the last 20 years." You noted in your prerequisites in requesting a Scholar that depression was a topic of interest.    Emily's  research topic "Chronobiological Interventions for the Treatment of Major Depression in Pregnant and Postpartum Women" addresses that interest area. Emily proposes the pregnant and postpartum period are accompanied by an increased risk of major depression.  Pharmacological interventions could pose risk to both fetus and infant; making treatment during peripartum very challenging.  She proposes tha...

We've all heard that exercise, managing stress and healthy eating are the cornerstone of a healthy life.  You can find tons of advice on how to make lifestyle changes that benefit your health -- anywhere from the how to have the right amount of sleep to the effects food has in specific parts of your body; after all, a healthy life IS a happy life! But what is the research behind all these suggestions?  How does it improve your health?  What are those 'simple' lifestyle changes we can implement NOW to be healthier? The Howell Foundation will be hosting Dr. Sears on May 20th.  She will present the latest information about how eating patterns and sedentary behavior are associated with the risk for chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. She will share insights from her latest women’s health-focused research and newly-funded projects in these areas.  Come learn about how you can make changes TODAY that may hel...

Deepika Suresh  Just a short time after she presented her field of research at the Foundation's lunch last May, Deepika Suresh was invited to present the progress of her work at the UCSD Summer Research Conference last week. . When she applied for the Foundation's scholarship, she mentioned that her priority was to learn all that she needed in order to succeed in medical school and ultimately her profession:  "I started in a research lab my first week of freshman year, eager to learn about what research entailed and how I could make my mark in the scientific world". And we are proud to say she is doing just that!  She reached out to us to tell us a little about the progress of her work. "My research project for this summer involves developing an education intervention on genetic risk assessment in young breast cancer survivors (YBCS).  My objective is to develop content about genetic risk assessment in YBCS for a web-based survivorship care plan that my...

Pictured above with Dr. Howell:  UCSD-Howell Scholars Liza Brusman, Jessie Chen and Deepika Suresh during Foundation's Lecture Series in May.   The Doris A. Howell Foundation announced it awarded 3 scholarships to UCSD students currently conducting research on women's health.  And while their fields of research are fascinating, the sentiment for women's health research reflects what the Foundation is all about.  Congratulations to our scholars!  We wish you all the success! Liza Brusman: "The opportunity to continue my work on this project would deepen my understanding of reproductive medicine and enlighten my future career path. Since beginning my work in this lab, my knowledge of reproductive biology has deepened significantly. I have become much more familiar with areas of research in reproductive medicine, as well as the systematic and molecular biological pathways of reproduction. In order to understand my project, I learned how reproduc...

The Howell Foundation will be kicking off the year with a presentation on tattoos… not the kind that stay with you for life, but the one that can definitely help in saving your life. What was once thought to be science fiction is becoming a reality, thanks to the research of Dr. Todd Coleman at UCSD.  His research is making strides in marrying computer sciences with biology and neurology through the elaboration of a flexible, portable “tattoo” that picks up electric signals in the body and transmits them wirelessly to any medical electrical device through applied mathematics. This “tattoo” seems to have all the components of your cell phone:  a wireless antenna that allows gathered information to be transmitted, the ability to wirelessly transfer power onto the device, Light Emitting Devices (LED) and light sensing devices to pick up information on the body’s blood oxygenation, temperature, your body’s mechanical strains and a variety of electrical signals on t...

                           Image courtesy of  dream designs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net                                       It is no secret that the Howell Foundation's core mission is to fund scholarships for students to conduct their research in women's health.  In participation with reknown educational Institutions such as UCSD, USD and SDSU, the Howell Foundation surpassed the half - a - million dollar mark in donations, helping almost 200 students complete the required research to pursue a career in the medical and biomedical fields. Many have asked about the impact these scholars have in women's health research. We received news from one of our past scholars last year.   His news was definitely encouraging and validated more than ever the need to keep on funding brilliant sch...