By uncovering critical sex-based differences related to brain and metabolic health, researchers Gillian Einstein and Minna Woo are making the case that tailored interventions are key to improving health outcomes for women — and everyone else. Through their work exploring how conditions from Alzheimer’s to kidney disease can have varied effects depending on a patient’s sex, they underscore what the medical community as a whole can learn from experts in women’s health: Things aren’t as simple as we want to believe. In this bonus episode, recorded live on May 8, 2025, at the MaRS Impact Health Conference, Einstein and Woo discuss the complexity of biology, the challenges of funding and why they’re optimistic that things are changing.

Featured in this episode:

Gillian Einstein is the Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women’s Brain Health and Aging and a psychology professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. She’s also an adjunct scientist at Baycrest and Women’s College Hospitals, and an honorary doctor of medicine at Linköping University, Sweden. Her lab’s current focus is on estradiol loss as well as how stigma and immigration affect memory and cognition in diverse populations of women.

Minna Woo is currently the director of the Banting and Best Diabetes Centre at the University of Toronto and recently completed a 10-year term as division director of endocrinology and metabolism at the Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network (UHN). She now holds the Ajmera Chair in Molecular Diabetes Research at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and is a clinician scientist and a staff endocrinologist providing diabetes and endocrine care at UHN. Her laboratory focuses on molecular mechanisms that determine the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and related diseases. She has published more than 100 research articles and her research is internationally recognized as a member elect of the American Society of Clinical Investigation.

Katherine Ward is an award-winning journalist currently working with Global News in Toronto. She joined the team in 2018 and has covered a wide range of stories taking her all over Ontario. This year, Ward was also part of an investigative team that exposed the prevalence of lead contamination in drinking water. “Tainted Water” went on to win a national award with Canada’s Radio Television Digital News Association.

Further reading:

• From body to brain: Understanding how sex and gender contribute to brain health as we age
• More women get Alzheimer’s than men. It may not just be because they live longer
• Sleep quality and the menstrual cycle
• Breaking down sex and gender barriers in search of precision medicine
• Canada accelerates diabetes research

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Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Extreme heat waves are anything but normal, but they’re quickly becoming the new reality. The 10 hottest years on record have all happened in the last decade. And because temperatures in urban centres can be 10 to 15 degrees Celsius higher than surrounding areas, cities can be dangerous places to be when the mercury rises — particularly for the elderly, those with pre-exisiting health conditions as well as poorer populations who lack access to air conditioning. “Heat has a way of going through the city and finding those who are the weakest,” says Eleni Myrivili, the United Nations’ global heat officer. “It’s a very unfair climate condition.” In this episode, we explore the growing risk posed by heat and what could help us adapt to a hotter world.

Eleni Myrivili is the United Nation’s first-ever global chief heat officer. An anthropologist by training, Myrivili understands how heat waves discriminate against older, less-wealthy and under-served demographics. Before being named to her UN post in 2022, Myrivili was Athens’ heat officer, where she coordinated the capital’s response to heat waves and helped renovate an ancient Roman aqueduct to bring water into the city.

Further reading:

• What will it take to save our cities from a scorching future
• Earth’s 10 hottest years on record are the last 10
• Extreme heat is deadlier than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined
• Heat inequality ‘causing thousands of unreported deaths in poor countries’
• The heat crisis is a housing crisis
• Ancient civilizations countered extreme heat. Here’s what cities borrow from history
• Toronto's getting hotter. Experts say a chief heat officer could help the city adapt
• Architects turning to India’s lattice-building designs to keep buildings cool without air conditioning
• How India’s lattice buildings cool without air conditioning
• Athen’s answer to a water supply crunch: an ancient aqueduct

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.