News | Page 4 | Pediatrics

Dr. Genevieve Fouda, Assistant Dean for Faculty Development, Joins the Department of Pediatrics

June 2, 2022

We are also pleased to announce the arrival of Genevieve Giny Fouda, M.D., Ph.D., to the Department of Pediatrics and Weill Cornell Medicine, effective July 1, 2022. Dr. Fouda will serve as Assistant Dean for Faculty Development, focusing on the professional development of basic scientists, and Director of the PhD Scientist Development and Training in Pediatrics Program, where she will help shape the next generation of pediatric scientists in basic sciences and promote wet bench research within the Department. Dr. Fouda will join the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases as a Professor of Pediatrics and provide mentorship to junior scientists and physicians involved in laboratory-based research.

Dr. Fouda’s research focuses on antibody responses to viral pathogens in children in comparison to adults following natural infection and vaccination. She is especially interested in investigating how the unique characteristics of the early life immune system can be harnessed to develop immunization strategies tailored to pediatric settings. Her research program is funded through several NIH grant mechanisms, including several R01s. She is also involved in collaborative projects to investigate pediatric HIV vaccine candidates and immune-based strategies toward a pediatric HIV cure.

Dr. Nicole Kucine Named as the Charles, Lillian and Betty Neuwirth Clinical Scholar in Pediatric Oncology

June 1, 2022

Congratulations to Nicole Kucine, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics, on being named by Weill Cornell Medicine - for the second time - as the Charles, Lillian and Betty Neuwirth Clinical Scholar in Pediatric Oncology.

As the Charles, Lillian and Betty Neuwirth Clinical Scholar, Dr. Kucine will continue her research on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), rare pre-malignant bone marrow disorders in children. She is working to better understand the pathogenesis in young patients and complete the largest sequencing evaluation of this patient population. Dr. Kucine evaluates the clinical features of the disease by describing the incidence of thrombotic events and identifying treatment options for use in children with MPNs. She leads an internationally recognized pediatric MPN clinical and research program and sees children from across the country.

Pediatrics Research Day 2022 highlights child health research at WCM

May 27, 2022

Pediatrics Research Day flyer

On June 2nd, 2022, the Department of Pediatrics and Gale and Ira Drukier Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine hosted Pediatrics Research Day 2022, highlighting basic and clinical research in children’s health by Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian faculty, fellows, residents, medical students, and staff. The day featured oral presentations, invited speakers, a career panel, and a poster session.

Please see the day's agenda below, and explore our abstracts guide:

Pediatrics Research Day 2022 Abstracts Guide

Agenda

11:15 am-12:00 pm

Check-in / Grab and Go Lunch

12:00 pm-12:05 pm
Welcome

Dr. Melody Zeng Receives Award to Study the Infant Gut Microbiome Response to RSV Infection

May 13, 2022

Melody Zeng, Ph.D., assistant professor of immunology in pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, has received a Cornell Multi-PI, Inter-campus grant for her study, “Interrogating the role of infant gut microbiome in immune responses to RSV infection.”

Serving as principal investigator, Dr. Zeng will collaborate with co-investigators, Elizabeth Johnson, Ph.D., assistant professor of the nutritional sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, and Stefan Worgall, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Genetic Medicine and Pediatrics and Distinguished Professor of Pediatric Pulmonology and Division Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy & Immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine, to define the contributions of the altered gut microbiome to dysregulation of immune responses to RSV infection in preterm infants, and to interrogate how bacterial sphingolipids shape lung immune cell development and confer protection against RSV infection in infants.

Dr. Melody Zeng Receives a Hartwell Foundation Individual Biomedical Research Award

May 11, 2022

This article was originally posted on WCM Newsroom.

Dr. Melody Zeng, an assistant professor of immunology in pediatrics and a member of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Research at Weill Cornell Medicine, has received a 2021 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award from The Hartwell Foundation. The award provides support for three years at $100,000 direct cost per year and designation as a Hartwell Investigator.

Dr. Sallie Permar and Collaborators Awarded R01 for Study of Natural Killer Cells in Pregnancy Maintenance and CMV Transmission

May 4, 2022

Dr. Virginia Pascual Receives Funding to Study Efficacy of Next Generation Influenza Vaccines in Older Adults

April 6, 2022

Virgina Pascual, MD, Director of the Gale and Ira Drukier Director of Children's Health Research, has received a U01 subaward from the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases for her study, “A deep longitudinal analysis of next-generation influenza vaccines in older adults.” The study aims to understand whether and why next-generation influenza vaccines might be more efficacious in older adults.

The WHO estimates that annual epidemics of influenza result in 3-5 million cases of severe illness and 300,000- 500,000 deaths. 90% of influenza-related deaths occur in older adults despite widespread vaccination programs with vaccines tailored for this high-risk group. The estimated effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in the U.S. for the 2018-2019 influenza season overall was 47%, but only 12-13% in older adults ((≥65yrs). Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand the mechanisms that are turned on/off in older adults that result in their limited response rate to the most commonly used influenza vaccine, Fluzone® High-Dose.

Pandemic Response Repository – Microbial and Immune Surveillance and Epidemiology (PREMISE): Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) Pilot Study

March 25, 2022

Perdita Permaul, MD has been awarded an NIH/NIAID funded subcontract with the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, currently operated by Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., 3-year pilot multicenter study to demonstrate the utility of immunologic and epidemiologic surveillance for future emerging pathogens and drive the development of future diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventative tools.

The project, known as “Pandemic Response Repository through Microbial and Immune Surveillance and Epidemiology (PREMISE): Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) Pilot Study,” will be led at Weill Cornell by Dr. Permaul, with co-investigators Drs. Sallie Permar and Stefan Worgall, to study enterovirus (EV) D68, a contagious respiratory infection that mostly affects children and has been associated with acute flaccid myelitis cases, and for which there is no vaccine. The study will allow researchers to learn more about the pathogen and how a child responds and fights off infection.

Dr. Kosofsky to Serve as Co-Director of the Child Neurologist Career Development Program (CNCDP-K12)

March 22, 2022

Barry Kosofsky, MD, PhD has been awarded a subcontract from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke (NINDS) to serve as Co-Director of the Child Neurologist Career Development Program (CNCDP-K12). The CNCDP-K12 aims to train talented early-career child neurologists to have a significant national and international impact on the field of pediatric neurology. Dr. Kosofsky will work in collaboration with the Kennedy Krieger Institute to oversee multiple programmatic aspects of the training program.

The NINDS established this nationwide K12 training program to provide three years of post-doctoral research support for six early career academic child neurologists selected each year from across the United States who want to pursue mentored basic or clinical developmental neuroscience research at their respective institutions.

The program funds exceptional customized research training for pediatric neurologists or graduates of neurodevelopmental disabilities fellowships. For three years, the CNCDP-K12 scholars receive an intensive, clinically relevant, basic and/or patient-oriented research mentorship at their home institution. A team of national experts in pediatric neurology and neuroscience provide additional mentoring and guidance regarding career development. The CNCDP-K12 scholars are supported to become the next generation of independent researchers and leading scientists.

Dr. Julia Brown Receives Funding to Study the Gut Microbiome's Influence on Early-life Immunity

March 16, 2022

Congratulations to Julia Brown, PhD on receiving funding for her study, “The role of the neonatal gut microbiome in lung immune development and antiviral immunity,” as part of the Biocodex Microbiota Foundation Grant Program.

The gut microbiome plays a critical role in neonatal immune development, and early-life perturbations to the microbiome have been linked to later susceptibility to respiratory conditions, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as modulating respiratory infection outcomes. Premature infants have a significantly altered microbiome, but it remains unclear how these alterations affect immune development or disease outcomes. For this study, Dr. Brown will use stool specimens from preterm and term infants to investigate the influence of the microbiome on immune responses to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is particularly severe in premature infants, and determine whether the altered microbiome of premature infants skews the immune system towards a pathogenic rather than protective response. The ultimate goal of this project is to identify components of the gut microbiome that influence early-life immune development, which could open a path toward probiotic-based therapeutics to improve immune system development in premature infants.