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New Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Jamie Palaganas

August 8, 2019

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Jamie Palaganas as Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and Assistant Attending Pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Phyllis and David Komansky Children’s Hospital.

Her clinical expertise is in general child neurology including pediatric epilepsy, tics, headache, and hypotonia. As a pediatric neurohospitalist at the NYP Komansky Children’s Hospital, she focuses on providing high quality care to acutely ill children, improving the transition from inpatient to outpatient care and cultivating interdisciplinary teams to best care for patients in all aspects of their life with neurologic conditions.

Dr. Palaganas completed her medical degree (M.D.) at the University of Buffalo. Following her residency in Pediatrics at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, she went on to complete a residency in Child Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is board certified in pediatrics and neurology with special qualifications in child neurology.

Dr. David Lyden Receives Siegel Family Award

August 2, 2019

Dr. David Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor in Pediatric Cardiology and a professor of pediatrics and of cell and developmental biology and Dr. John Blenis, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Professor in Cancer Research and a professor of pharmacology are this year's recipients of the Siegel Family Award for Outstanding Medical Research. They were recognized for their exceptional professional achievement and scientific innovation, as well as a commitment to positively impact future generations of researchers.

Dr. Lyden, who is also affiliated with the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children's Health at Weill Cornell Medicine, received the National Cancer Institute's Outstanding Investigator Award in 2018.

Visit Dr. Lyden's research profile page to learn more about his publications and innovative research.

Outstanding Students and Excellence in Teaching Celebrated at Weill Cornell Convocation

May 31, 2019

On the eve of commencement, students, alumni, faculty and staff from Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences were recognized for their outstanding achievements with special awards, prizes, certificates and the Weill Cornell seal during three ceremonies on May 29 in Uris Auditorium and Griffis Faculty Club. The awards acknowledge exceptional academic achievement, scholarship, research, teaching and service.

A number of Pediatric faculty and staff were recognized. See below for the full list of award recipients.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Student Awards

The Clarence C. Coryell Prizes in Surgery and Medicine
Elizabeth Gardner Gilbert

Coryell Prize in Medicine
Cody Patrick Nolan

The Alfred Moritz Michaelis Prize in Medicine
Yunan Nie

The Oskar Diethelm Prize for Excellence in Psychiatry
Zhenzhen Shi

The Joan Severino Parisi Prize in Internal Medicine
Lee Solomon Gotesdiener

The David and Gladys Drusin Memorial Prize
Caitlin Krystyna Gribbin

The T. Campbell Thompson Prize for Excellence in Orthopedic Surgery
Tyler James Uppstrom

The Mitchell Spivak Memorial Prize in Pediatrics
Micha Virginia Thompson

The James A. Moore Scholarship
Aaron Bamberger Oswald

Pediatrics Department Faculty, Residents and Fellows Presented at 2019 PAS Meeting

April 16, 2019

We are excited to share the 2019 Weill Cornell Medicine Guide to PAS Abstracts for this year's Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) meeting, which was held April 27-30 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Once again, a number of Weill Cornell Medicine faculty, residents, fellows and staff participated in this year's conference to learn and share best practices in clinical care, education, patient safety, and research to ultimately improve care for our young patients and their families.

2019 PAS NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Booth Schedule

Saturday, April 27
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Theresa Hetzler, MD (General Academic Pediatrics)
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Erika Abramson, MD, MS (General Academic Pediatrics)
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Susan Bostwick, MD, MBA (General Academic Pediatrics)

Researchers Discover New Pathway Regulating Intestinal Health that is Impaired in Children with IBD

April 5, 2019

Production of an essential protein for maintaining a healthy immune response in the intestine called interleukin-2 (IL-2) depends on immune cells known as innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. The study, published April 3 in Nature, is the first to identify these cells and the factors that influence them as potential new targets for treating chronic gut inflammation associated with inflammatory bowel disease or food allergies.

“We have understood for quite a while that IL-2 is important for maintaining a healthy immune response in the gut,” said senior author Dr. Gregory Sonnenberg, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology in medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and a member of the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Dramatic inflammation occurs when humans or mice are missing IL-2, but the specific cells that make it and the regulatory pathways controlling its production in the intestine were previously unknown.”

Baby Steps: Dr. Jeffrey Perlman Spearheads Simple, Low-cost Efforts to Save Newborns in Tanzania—with Dramatic Results

December 28, 2018

Dr. Jeffrey Perlman grew up in South Africa and attended medical school there. But by 2006, when he was tasked with helping set up the pediatrics program at Tanzania’s Weill Bugando Medical Centre—then newly affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine—he’d been living and working in the United States for decades. So coming face to face with the reality of how many newborn lives are lost in Africa’s medically under-resourced nations was both shocking and heartbreaking. “I saw all these babies dying unnecessarily,” says Dr. Perlman, a professor of pediatrics who directs the neonatal ICU at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. In America overall, according to figures released by the CDC in 2015, the neonatal mortality rate averages four for every 1000 births—and at a state-of-the-art hospital such as NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Perlman says, the number is just .7 per 1000. In Tanzania, by contrast, Dr. Perlman encountered a rate of 39 per 1000 births—or roughly two newborns dying every hour. Dr. Perlman resolved to change that.

Spotlight: New Rajadhyaksha Lab Page

October 24, 2018

The Rajadhyaksha Lab, led by Dr. Anjali Rajadhyaksha, is focused on how calcium signaling mechanisms in the brain contribute to cocaine- and mood-related behaviors. This is of particular importance and high significance given the link in patients between the Cav1.2 and Cav1.3 genes, CACNA1C and CACNA1D, and neuropsychiatric disorders including bipolar disorder accompanied with high incidence of substance abuse. The lab is utilizing animal models in combination with highly innovative genetic, cellular and molecular techniques to identify the neural circuitry and molecular mechanisms to better understand how genetic predisposition can contribute to addiction and neuropsychiatric illness. Her group’s hope is that a better understanding of the brain at the molecular level will aid in therapeutic strategies for treating addiction and co-occurring mood-related conditions.

Learn more

Meet the lab team and learn more about their work at the Lab's newly launched webpage:

Rajadhyaksha Lab

Spotlight: Pediatric Myeloproliferative Neoplasm (MPN) Program

August 23, 2018

Myeloproliferative neoplasms (or MPN) are disorders where parts of the bone marrow get overproduced, such as platelets (blood cells to stop bleeding), red blood cells (blood cells that carry oxygen in the body), or fibrous tissue in the bone marrow (like scar tissue.) They can run in families but are usually sporadic, or isolated cases when they happen. The Pediatric MPN Program is a joint program of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and the NYP Komansky Children's Hospital, and the Richard T. Silver Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Center.

Our team is also engaged in research, with the goal of bringing bench discoveries to the bedside, for better care and management of this rare disease.

Learn more

Find out more about MPN and keep up with program news at our website:

Pediatric MPN Program at Weill Cornell Medicine

We Are Weill Cornell Medicine: Dr. Anjali Rajadhyaksha

June 27, 2018

Child health research spotlight: Dr. Anjali Rajadhyaksha knows the effects of drug addiction, having lost a neighbor to the disease. Now a neuroscientist, she and her team hope to develop therapies to help those most vulnerable to dependence.

“It really takes teamwork and togetherness, which is what I have in my lab. They’re troubleshooting with me,” said Dr. Rajadhyaksha, an associate professor of neuroscience and of neuroscience in pediatrics. “We are always thinking about that individual who is addicted, and how can we help.”

View Dr. Rajadhyaksha's We Are WCM video:

Using the social media hashtag, #WeAreWCM, read more stories to discover the faces behind the medicine and how they are paving the future for innovative healthcare

Child Health News: Introducing Peanut in Infancy

May 25, 2018

Peanut allergy is becoming increasingly common in the United States, with a tripling in reported peanut allergy prevalence over 11 years. In 2015, for the first time, a landmark study provided evidence of an intervention that significantly reduces the risk of developing peanut allergy. What is this miracle treatment? As it turns out, it is peanut, early and often! Read on to learn whether your child might benefit from early introduction of peanut, and what role the allergist plays in facilitating introduction of peanut and other allergenic foods.

When should I introduce peanut to my infant?

Based on convincing evidence (detailed at the end of this document) that early introduction of peanut reduces risk of developing peanut allergy in at-risk infants, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has created guidelines for introduction of peanut as follows: