Symposium 2026 | Uncovering the Influence of Hormones across Systems and Tissues
Uncovering the Influence of Hormones across Systems and Tissues
Hormones shape performance, recovery, and health in ways science is only beginning to map. This session will examine sex-based differences in tissue, new sensing technology for tracking gastric and menstrual activity, and how hormones influence muscle physiology, metabolism, and effort.
CO-MODERATOR
Kathryn Ackerman, MD, MPH, FACSM
Kathryn (Kate) Ackerman, MD, is co-founder and Director of the Women’s Health, Sports & Performance (WHSP) Institute, WHSP Medical, and the Biennial International Female Athlete Conference, and serves on the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance’s Executive Leadership Council. A sports medicine physician and endocrinologist, her clinic and research focus on female athlete health and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). A former US national team rower, she is US Rowing’s Chief Medical Officer, co-chairs the USOPC’s Women’s Health Task Force, and advises the WTA and NWSL.
CO-MODERATOR
Cindy Chang, MD, FAMSSM, FACSM
Cindy Chang is Chief Medical Officer of the National Women’s Soccer League and professor emerita in the Departments of Orthopaedics and Family & Community Medicine at University of California, San Francisco. She is a member of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Sports Advisory Council and the Women’s Health, Sports & Performance (WHSP) Executive Advisory Board. She has provided comprehensive sports medicine care to all ages and levels of athletes for over 3 decades, including as Head Team Physician at UC Berkeley and Chief Medical Officer of Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and 2012 London Olympics.
SPEAKER
Brianne Connizzo, PhD
Brianne Connizzo is an assistant professor in biomedical and mechanical engineering at Boston University. Through the development of novel in vitro and in vivo models, her lab investigates how sex hormones and the menstrual cycle modulate tendon remodeling in response to mechanical loading. She hopes to use this research to maximize tissue resilience across the lifespan by optimizing training and injury prevention strategies for female athletes.
SPEAKER
Todd Coleman, PhD
Todd Coleman is a Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute Faculty Scholar and an associate professor of bioengineering, and by courtesy, electrical engineering, at Stanford University, as well as a member of the Leadership Council of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Stanford. His multi-disciplinary research draws on applied probability, physiology, and bioelectronics, spanning optimal transport methods for uncertainty quantification to technologies for monitoring and modulating nervous system physiology. He also serves as deputy director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.
SPEAKER
Lee Margolis, PhD, FACSM
Lee Margolis is a senior scientist in physiology at the Women’s Health, Sports & Performance Institute. His research focuses on energy and carbohydrate metabolism at the skeletal muscle and whole-body level. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, is the past chair of the Energy and Macronutrient Metabolism Research Interest Section in the American Society for Nutrition, serves as an editorial board member of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, and an associate editor for Performance Nutrition.
SPEAKER
Brad Wilkins, PhD
Brad Wilkins is Director of the Oregon Performance Research Laboratory and an assistant professor of human physiology at the University of Oregon. An expert in exercise and sport physiology, his work focuses on defining the physiological limits of human performance and developing strategies to overcome the barriers that constrain human potential. His research takes an integrative approach, examining how muscle bioenergetics, cardiovascular function, sex hormones, gut microbes, and environmental stressors interact to modulate the progression of fatigue and performance outcomes.
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