Understanding the NIH Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV) Policy and the Importance of Sex & Gender in Research

<p> Rajeev K. Agarwal (he/him) is a Senior Research Program Officer in the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), NIH. He leads two flagship programs:</p><ol><li>the Specialized Centers of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences to promote innovative translational research focusing on sex differences and major medical conditions affecting women and</li><li>the administrative supplement program to support research highlighting the impact of sex (as a biological variable) and gender (as a social construct) influences in human health and illness. </li></ol><p>He is also the Senior Scientific Lead/Coordinator for all COVID-19 related activities and a cochair of COVID-19 working group of Coordinating Committee on Research on Women’s Health (CCRWH).&nbsp;Before joining ORWH, Dr. Agarwal was a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, overseeing a translational research portfolio known as Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) for different organ sites (brain, cervical, endometrial, gastrointestinal, ovarian, pancreatic, and skin cancers) funded as P50 and U54 mechanisms. </p><p>Dr. Agarwal holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Lucknow in India. He performed his research at one of India’s premier institutes, the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) in Lucknow. In the United States, he worked at Tufts University, the State University of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse, and in the intramural program of the National Eye Institute at NIH. He also worked as a director of Research and Development in the Immunosciences Lab., Beverly Hills, CA.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>