At the Yale School of Public Health, Domenica Berardi is exploring sex differences in colorectal cancer. Historically, the disease has been studied mostly in men, leaving a gap in our understanding of how it affects women.
Berardi is hoping to fill that gap - with support from the Women's Health Research at Yale Collaborative, the university's new interdisciplinary research hub centered on women's health.
For Berardi, who as a postdoctoral associate is just beginning her career, being part of the collaborative has been a unique opportunity to engage with and learn from a multidisciplinary community of scientists and clinicians who have been working in women's health for years.
"This collaborative is particularly important for my work because, as I'm investigating colorectal cancer in women, I believe that engaging with experts in women's health will help me refine my research questions, consider novel perspectives, and potentially develop partnerships that amplify women's health research overall," Berardi said.
Officially launched in December 2025, the collaborative brings together faculty members, scientists, clinicians, educators, policymakers, postdoctoral researchers, residents, medical students, undergraduates, and more from schools and departments campuswide to strengthen Yale's reputation as the nation's leading academic research center for examining sex differences in health as well as conditions that uniquely affect women.
So far, more than 200 individuals have signed up for the collaborative. They represent 10 different schools and 34 different departments, with the top three being internal medicine, psychiatry, and obstetrics, gynecology & reproductive sciences.
