Leveraging Big Data to Improve Women's Health

Leveraging Big Data to Improve Women's Health is an NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence focused on leveraging Big Data to mitigate health inequality for women.

What We Do

By funding research projects, supporting faculty, improving lab facilities and boosting collaboration across scholarly fields, the center will harness complex datasets to tackle biomedical issues vital to women. The leading collaborators at KU come from a range of laboratory sciences as well as behavioral and social sciences. The COBRE BD-WH integrates a Data Set Core led by Donna Ginther, five research projects and multiple pilot projects, led by KU faculty from various scientific disciplines, to leverage large biomedical datasets for advancing women's health research.

Featured News for COBRE BD-WH

A photo of a woman's hand pulling the book "Swiftynomics" from a handbag.

'Swiftynomics' by Misty Heggeness explores how women power, redefine economy

A new book from KU researcher Misty Heggeness titled "Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy” pairs rigorous data with humor, personal anecdotes and Taylor Swift song titles as chapter subheadings to tell the story of women who have survived and thrived in overlooked ways. It also shares policy prescriptions for a more sustainable workforce.

Illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia of many types litter a table.

Fractured family relationships increase susceptibility for polydrug use, study finds

In a new study, Jarron Saint Onge, professor of sociology at the University of Kansas, examines the relationship between using multiple types of drugs and social inequality among low-income Mexican American women.

Donna Ginther receives Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the American Economic Association

The American Economic Association awarded the 2025 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award to Donna Ginther, Roy A. Roberts & Regents Distinguished Professor of Economics and director of the Institute for Policy & Social Research at the University of Kansas.

Amber Watts wins $10K GeroSprint Competition award

Dr. Amber Watts, Women's Health COBRE BD-WH research project leader, recently was awarded a $10K prize for first place in the GeroSprint Competition. The award was given at the Geropalooza Research Symposium, co-hosted by the Landon Center on Aging and the Division of Geriatrics in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

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Research reported in this website is supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and Office of the Director (OD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number P20GM152280. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.