Dr. Legato

Is an internationally renowned academic, physician, author and lecturer. She pioneered the new field of gender-specific medicine, devoted to the differences in men and women’s normal physiology and in their experience of the same diseases

She received an honorary PhD from the University of Panama in 2015 in recognition of her groundbreaking work. She is also a Professor Emerita of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Dr. Legato also the founder and director of the Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine, which she created in 2006 as a continuation of her program, The Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University. That initiative was the result of a remarkable partnership with Procter & Gamble, one of the first of its kind ever to illustrate the value of a relationship between industry and academia.

Dr. Legato began her work by rejecting what she called the bikini view of women, i.e., the assumption that apart from reproductive physiology, males and females were identical in every tissue of the body. As research in this new and unexplored science of gender-specific medicine expanded, the academic community slowly accepted the idea that this intellectually unsubstantiated view of human physiology was completely false. As a consequence, our understanding of the pathology of disease, risk factors for illness and treatment decisions were transformed.

Dr. Legato’s Award Wining publications

Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine: Sex and Gender-Specific Biology in the Postgenomic Era 4th Edition

Awarded with the 2018 Prose Award in Clinical Medicine, the third edition of Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine explored and described exciting new areas in biomedicine that integrated technology into the treatment of disease and the augmentation of human function. Novel topics such as the sex-specific aspects of space medicine, the development and the use of genderized robots and a discussion of cyborgs were included in the third edition, providing a preview of the expanding world of sex-specific physiology and therapeutics. This Fourth Edition is a continuation of the mission to trace the relevance of biological sex to normal function and to the experience of disease in humans.

Dr. Legato’s Award Wining publications

The Plasticity of Sex:

The Molecular Biology and Clinical Features of Genomic Sex, Gender Identity and Sexual Behavior provides a comprehensive view on the development of human sexuality. As there has been a crescendo of interest over the past several decades about the nature and diversity of human sexuality, this reference brings the evidence-based research into one place. The emergence of issues surrounding gender identity, genital ambivalence and the transition from one sex to another is striking, with the public and treating physicians alike clamoring for an evidence-based, comprehensive treatment of human sexuality and all its variations.

Dr. Legato’s Award Wining publications

Principles of Gender Specific Medicine 3rd Edition – Gender in the Genomic Era:

The announcement that we had decoded the human genome in 2000 ushered in a new and unique era in biomedical research and clinical medicine. This Third Edition of Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine focuses, as in the past two editions, on the essentials of sexual dimorphism in human physiology and pathophysiology, but emphasizes the latest information about molecular biology and genomic science in a variety of disciplines. Thus, this edition is a departure from the previous two; the editor solicited individual manuscripts from innovative scientists in a variety of fields rather than the traditional arrangement of sections devoted to the various subspecialties of medicine edited by section chiefs. Wherever it was available, these authors incorporated the latest information about the impact of the genome and the elements that modify its expression on human physiology and illness. All chapters progress translationally from basic science to the clinical applications of gender-specific therapy and suggest the most important topics for future investigation.

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