News | Pediatrics

Dr. Cori Green Awarded Youth Cope Grant to Address Youth Mental Health Crisis

November 14, 2023

The Department is pleased to announce that Dr. Cori Green, Vice Chair of Behavioral Health in Pediatrics has been awarded the Department of Pediatrics Youth Cope Grant. This grant will support Dr. Green's project, "Re-Launching Youth Cope: Improving Access and Expanding the Workforce to Address the Mental Health Crisis."

Dr. Green's project is a response to the critical issue of youth mental health, which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, many behavioral health problems affecting children and adolescents often went undetected. Even when recognized, families faced significant challenges in accessing appropriate care. During the pandemic, rates of anxiety and depression in youth doubled, emergency room visits for suicidality increased, and pediatricians were inundated with distressed patients.

Increases in Pediatric Mental Health Emergency Visits Persist Throughout Pandemic

October 20, 2023

This article was originally posted in the WCM newsroom.

Mental health crises among children and adolescents requiring emergency department care skyrocketed during the pandemic and have stayed elevated despite a return to normalcy, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics on Oct. 20, compared rates of pediatric mental health visits in the emergency departments of five New York City medical centers from a pre-pandemic period through five pandemic waves. Each wave saw elevated rates of youth mental health-related visits compared to before the pandemic. They found, however, no relationship between pediatric mental health visits and COVID-19 prevalence or how strict mitigation measures were.

Dr. Zachary Grinspan Named Recipient of an RTW Charitable Foundation 2023 Humanitarian Grant Award

September 7, 2023

The Department of Pediatrics is proud to announce that Dr. Zachary Grinspan has been selected as a recipient of a $50,000 grant from the RTW Charitable Foundation (RTWCF). This marks the third consecutive year that Dr. Grinspan has been honored with this prestigious award, highlighting his exceptional contributions to the field of pediatric data science.

"We are honored to be a recipient of this generous grant from the RTW Charitable Foundation," said Dr. Zachary Grinspan, interim chief of the Division of Child Neurology, director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Program, and associate professor in pediatrics and in population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. "This partnership underscores our commitment to addressing healthcare disparities and improving the well-being of children in our local communities."

In its third year, the Weill Cornell-RTWCF partnership will focus on advancing data science in pediatrics. Dr. Grinspan and his team aim to transform the way pediatric healthcare is delivered by leveraging data collected during patient visits to improve the health of children as a whole population. This initiative will make valuable data accessible to Weill Cornell's academic physician faculty, enabling a wide range of initiatives to enhance access to care and clinical outcomes.

Dr. Camilia Martin Awarded R01 to Study the Metabolic Effects of Providing Essential Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids to Preterm Infants

September 7, 2023

Dr. Camilia Martin, Chief of the Division of Neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine has been awarded an R01 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for her study, 'Metabolic Mechanisms Induced by Enteral DHA and ARA Supplementation in Preterm Infants.' The study will focus on the metabolic effects of providing essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and Arachidonic Acid (ARA), to preterm infants.

DHA and ARA are vital for brain, eye development, and immune regulation, yet for almost 40 years, enteral supplementation of DHA and ARA to replace lost fetal accretion has failed to translate into long-standing clinical benefit. The failure to understand the metabolism and induced molecular changes of fatty acid supplementation during the postnatal period has led to erroneous assumptions and replacement strategies that are, at best, not clinical beneficial and, at worst, harmful. Dr. Martin's study aims to uncover the metabolic processes and molecular changes that occur when DHA and ARA are given through enteral supplementation to extremely preterm infants from birth to 36 weeks postnatal age.

Dr. Nitya Gulati Awarded the Department of Pediatrics Pilot Award to Develop a Model to Predict Outcomes in Mediastinal B-cell Lymphoma

August 21, 2023

Dr. Nitya Gulati has been awarded the Department of Pediatrics 2023 Pilot Award for her research project titled "Risk Stratification using Tumor Microenvironment Signatures in Primary Mediastinal B-cell Lymphoma." The project focuses on studying the tumor microenvironment so that it can be leveraged to predict outcomes and design effective treatment methods for children and young adults diagnosed with Primary Mediastinal B-cell Lymphoma (PMBCL).

PMBCL is a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) primarily affecting children, adolescents, and young adults. However, optimal therapy for PMBCL remains a subject of debate, as the current approaches yield suboptimal results regardless of treatment strategy. Moreover, clinical and biological factors that can guide risk stratification and predict patient prognosis remain undefined. A well-established fact is that non-cancerous cells present in the tumor microenvironment play a crucial role in influencing and communicating with cancer cells. This knowledge has proven valuable in identifying predictive biomarkers and designing targeted therapeutic strategies for diseases like Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma and Hodgkin Lymphoma. Unfortunately, the characteristics of the tumor microenvironment in PMBCL are not well-defined.

Pediatrics 2nd Annual Research Day

June 6, 2023

The Department of Pediatrics and Gale and Ira Drukier Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine hosted its second annual Pediatrics Research Day on June 6th. This special event, organized by Pediatrics and Drukier Faculty Organization Committees, celebrated the advancements and contributions made by our faculty and trainees in the field of children's health research.

The Pediatrics Research Day showcased a diverse range of research disciplines, including basic science, clinical studies, translational research, quality improvement, and educational research. Our faculty and trainees presented their findings through oral abstracts and poster presentations.

The event began with welcoming remarks from Dr. Sallie Permar, Chair of Pediatrics, and Dr. Virginia Pascual, Director of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute. Dr. Sujit Sheth, Vice Chair of Clinical Research, provided an overview of the ongoing research activities within our department and valuable information about the resources available to our researchers.

Cancers in Distant Organs Alter Liver Function

May 24, 2023

This article was originaly posted in the WCM newsroom

Cancers often release molecules into the bloodstream that pathologically alter the liver, shifting it to an inflammatory state, causing fat buildup and impairing its normal detoxifying functions, according to a study from investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. This discovery illuminates one of cancer’s more insidious survival mechanisms and suggests the possibility of new tests and drugs for detecting and reversing this process.

Dr. Zachary Grinspan Awarded R01 Grant to Improve Newborn Seizure Care and Prevent Epilepsy in High-risk Infants

May 16, 2023

Dr. Zachary Grinspan, Interim Division Chief of pediatric neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine and Director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Program, has been awarded an R01 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for his study, “NS-PEACE Neonatal Seizures -Predicting Epilepsy and Assessing Comparative Effectiveness.” The study aims to improve the care of newborns who experience seizures and their subsequent outcomes and predict and prevent epilepsy in high-risk individuals.

Neonatal seizures occur once per 1000 live births and are associated with the subsequent development of epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disability. This study will address three questions related to the management of acute symptomatic neonatal seizures. First, it will compare the effectiveness of two anti-seizure medications, levetiracetam and phenytoin/fosphenytoin, to determine which is the best second-line medication. Second, it will examine whether the use of certain medications, like oxcarbazepine, affects the risk of infantile spasms syndrome. Finally, it will validate a published epilepsy prediction rule to determine which infants will develop epilepsy after leaving the neonatal intensive care unit.

Dr. Lisa Roth and Dr. James Lo Elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation

May 4, 2023

Full article posted in WCM Newsroom

Dr. James C. Lo, an associate professor of medicine and Dr. Lisa G. Roth, an associate professor of pediatrics, both from Weill Cornell Medicine, were elected members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) for 2023.

Election into the ASCI, which represents excellence across the breadth of academic medicine, is a milestone for physician-scientists. The nonprofit medical honor society, which is comprised of more than 3,000 physician-scientists from all medical specialties, recognizes and supports the scientific efforts, educational needs and clinical aspirations of physician-scientists to improve the health of all people.

Leriglitazone Demonstrates Lesion Growth Deceleration in Pediatric Cerebral Adrenoleukodystrophy

May 2, 2023

This article was originally posted in Neurology Live Spotlight News

New interim results from the phase 2 open-label NEXUS (NCT04528706), 96-week study on leriglitazone (Minoryx Therapeutics), a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ agonist, for pediatric cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (cALD) showed that all evaluable patients were clinically stable and radiologically displayed disease arrest or lesion growth stabilization after 24 weeks of treatment.1 This analysis supports the use of leriglitazone to treat pediatric patients with progressive cALD, a rapidly fatal neurodegenerative phenotype of X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy characterized by inflammatory brain demyelination.2

Among the 11 evaluable patients that demonstrated lesion growth deceleration or disease arrest (95% confidence interval [CI]: 71.5, 100), 5 showed arrested disease (45.5%, 95% CI, 13.9–68.4%) and all had met the pre-defined continuation criteria for the trial. Notably, the median change from baseline was 0.0 (0.0–1.0) for the neurological function score (NFS) and 0.0 (0.0–3.0) for the Loes score (LS).