PHILADELPHIA — Tracy L. Bale of the University of Pennsylvania received the Society for Women’s Health Research Medtronic Prize for Scientific Contributions to Women’s Health at a gala dinner last night in Washington, D.C.

Bale is an associate professor of neuroscience in Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Animal Biology and in the Perelman School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry. Her research focuses on how and why certain individuals are predisposed to developing neuropsychiatric diseases such as autism as well as affective and eating disorders. Using mouse models, she examines how genetic variations and exposure to stress and reproductive hormones during prenatal and early life may translate into long-term disease risk, and how these outcomes arise in a sex-specific manner.

The Medtronic Prize is given to a female scientist in her early to mid career who has devoted a significant part of her work to sex differences research and has served as a role model and mentor for both colleagues and students.

Bale has previously been honored with the 2011 Weitzman Memorial Award, given to an exceptionally promising young clinical or basic researcher, and a 2008 Career Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience, recognizing achievement and promise in neuroscience for early-career professionals.