On this edition:

🪩 A day without women

📣 This Thursday - From Research to Action

👩‍🔬 It’s not about the tools; it’s about the mission

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🪩 A day without women

by Laura Minquini

When I realized funding for women’s health was overlooked, it baffled me. I had spent the first part of my career selling things to women that even if beautiful, they did not need. I myself bought into it; I have a closet full of Louboutins that I no longer wear. I say this with shame, not pride, as I now keep thinking of all the better things those dollars could have been spent on. Maybe more frozen embryos? Maybe having invested in another woman building an exciting company? I traded on aesthetics and storytelling.

I was baffled that women’s health was a problem because women are so powerful. Not only are there incredible trailblazers who have done so much already to push the field forward. Women, in general, are the kingmakers of so many industries. Sadly, there are powers that try to always take away our gains or point us at a disadvantage, but ladies, you control the strings with your hard-earned capital.

There is a cult classic called “A day without a Mexican”; Los Angeles gets to the brink of collapse when the Mexicans disappear. If we had “A day without women” imagine how many industries we would collapse, including healthcare, as 80% of healthcare decisions are made by women. Society itself - would collapse.

So let’s take these two premises:

1. Women are powerful consumers. We are the equivalent of “market makers” for some of the biggest industries in the world: fashion and beauty. Who is the man who is constantly fighting for the “richest man in the world” spot? Bernard Arnault. What does he mostly sell? Luxury brands whose biggest clients are usually women - even in China.
2. Women’s health is overlooked so we need to take action into our own hands. We established that women are powerful consumers, but somehow the biopharma industry missed this memo, as only 1% of healthcare research and innovation is invested in conditions beyond oncology. One day in the future there should be a study on the loss of economic value and growth from this business oversight. One day!

On this International Women’s Day, we want to remind every woman that by combining these two premises and flipping the script - we are very powerful.

And of course, this all ties back to AthenaDAO. As we get ready for our Bio.xyz Demo Day and some other big announcements, we are establishing that all we see is an opportunity and the power of women coming together. 🪩🤍

To be continued…

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📣 This Thursday - From Research to Action

Join us to celebrate International Women’s Week with our seminar featuring some of the researchers making an impact on the women’s health landscape.

Date: Thursday, March 9th

Time: 11 am EST / 8 am PST / 5 pm CET

Format: Zoom Seminar

We’ll be featuring a variety of contributors to our inaugural Reproductive Health Report. This includes:

• Dr. Lizellen La Follette, OB/GYN at La Follette OB-GYN & Aesthetics.
• Dr. Miguel Brieño-Enriquez, Principle investigator at the Brieño-Enríquez lab and assistant professor at the Magee-Women’s Research Institute.
• Dr. Zhongwei Huang, Deputy Director, Asia Centre for Reproductive Longevity & Equality (ACRLE) and OB/GYN.
• Lu Dong, Ph.D. student in biomedical sciences at the National University of Singapore and a researcher at the NUS Centre for Healthy Longevity.
• Dr. Maria Marinova, Venture creation analyst at Apollo Health Ventures and AthenaDAO science lead.  
• Moderator:
• Laura Minquini, AthenaDAO founder and core lead.

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👩‍🔬 It’s not about the tools; it’s about the mission

We want to introduce you to Lu Dong. You will be hearing more about her as our landmark IP-NFT will be on the research she is working on. We want to tell you her story as Lu’s story is the ideal use case for us. Her introduction to web3 and DeSci was AthenaDAO. She did not join because of speculation, a dream of decentralization, or exploring new technologies; she joined because she cares about women’s health.

When you read her pointed answers to our questions, she is the first to admit she is not even fully sure what an IP NFT is. Does she need to know how the tech works to get her research funded? She needs to know her rights of ownership and contracts, but the tech is not the key for her, what matters to her is the mission.

Lu, please tell us about what you are doing for your Ph.D.

1. Drugs to promote ovarian aging and improve women’s overall health and longevity.
2. Cellular pathways associated with female reproductive aging.
3. Drug delivery to specific sites in the female reproductive system.

Why did you choose this field?

1. Society: gender equality; provide women with an option; make women less restricted by the “fertility window” or reproductive lifespan.
2. Personal: I want to have babies but hard to reach a balance between an early career and childbearing.
3. Funding and prospect: this field is burgeoning with a lot of new opportunities and resources coming in.

How did you end up at Brian Kennedy's lab?

1. Acceptance by the university Ph.D. programme.
2. During lab rotation, attracted by Brian’s lecture on aging in a module.
3. Opportunity to do ovarian aging; also the establishment of ACRLE in early 2021.

How did you hear about AthenaDAO?

1. Met Maria on ARDD.
2. Laura and I both presented at the ACRLE conference.

What did you know about web3 & DeSci?

I did not hear about it until I joined AthenaDAO.

What do you think about it?

1. I don’t know much about it.
2. But it provides a funding opportunity for researchers from underfunded fields such as women’s health and perhaps from a less-known lab.
3. Helps to disseminate information about women’s health and gather experts in the field to collaborate in a global manner.

Tell us about your research project.

1. Drug screen to find longevity drugs that may delay ovarian aging and prolong reproductive lifespan.
2. Other projects: mTOR pathway in ovarian aging and longevity; targeted drug delivery to the ovary and ovarian-specific cells.

What do you understand are IP-NFTs?

Google tells me they are intellectual property in the form of non-fungible tokens.

We want to highlight Lu’s story because this is the essence of our movement. You do not need to be an expert in web3, a scientist…not even a woman, to join and be an agent of change.