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Portia Ltd

PORTIA

Portia Ltd designs and implements effective, evidence-based strategies for advancing quality of research and innovation by addressing common gender problems in institutional practices, in science knowledge making, in human capital development, and in implementation of legislation.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Giulia Del Brenna (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas), Keith Sequeira (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas)

4 Jul 2018 · Gender in Research and Innovation

Response to Codes for the designation of Notified Bodies in the field of medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices

5 Oct 2017

It must be taken into consideration that the role of sexual dimorphism at cell and biochemical level is almost completely missing from the literature on in vitro diagnostics, e.g. Biotechnol J. 2014 Jan; 9(1): 16–27. Published online 2013 Dec 4. doi: 10.1002/biot.201300187 and Drug Discov Today. 2012 February ; 17(3-4): 173–181. doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2011.10.029. There is however substantial body of scientific evidence to show that sexual dimorphism in biochemical pathways is important, and can be explained at the level of chromosomal phenomena in women that are not present in men such as (incomplete and non-random) inactivation of the second X chromosome, and interrelationships between the expression of certain genes on the X and Y and on autosomal chromosomes (separate to hormonal effects). This means that development and effectiveness of in vitro diagnostic platforms needs to be validated for women and men, otherwise they will repeat the inadequacy of animal models, which are male biased, and in the case of female mice are inadequate because the inactivation of the second X in female mouse is almost fully complete compared to the extent of the inactivation in the human female where 15-25% of genes may remain active.
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Response to General Safety of Vehicles and Pedestrians

29 Jul 2017

Please consider research by Astrid Linder and Susanne Gustafsson of the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, VTI. Here is the abstract: The aim of this study was to review how men and women are represented in regulatory tests conducted to assess adult occupant safety in vehicles. In Europe there are three regulatory tests assessing adult occupant safety in the event of a crash, the ECE regulations No. 16 (R 16) (safety belt), No. 94 (R 94) (frontal collision) and No. 95 (R 95) (lateral collision). These regulations have been studied focusing on what occupant models, crash test dummies, are required for these tests. The dummy used in the R16 represents a 50th percentile adult male in general size and weight distribution. Also in R 94, frontal collisions tests, a dummy representing a 50th percentile adult male is used. Dummies representing humans in lateral collisions (R 95) are also of 50th percentile adult males. The review of the ECE regulations shows that the average sized women, and thus half the adult population, is not represented in regulations assessing the protection of adult vehicle occupants. Several studies have shown that women have much higher risk of injury in a car crash than men, and that patterns of injury are different for women and men, and for the women do not match the data obtained with crash test dummies. See as example: http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/192082/local_192082.pdf
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Meeting with José Mendes Bota (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas)

16 Sept 2015 · 8th Gender Summit

Meeting with José Mendes Bota (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas)

1 Jul 2015 · 7th Gender Summit Europe

Meeting with José Mendes Bota (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas)

1 Jun 2015 · 7th Gender Summit Europe

Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

7 Jan 2015 · Scoping of H2020 2016-2017 programme - gender overlooked in Working Papers for Proramme Committees