News | Page 14 | Pediatrics

Dr. Elizabeth Fiorino Promoted to Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics

February 1, 2022

The Department of Pediatrics is pleased to announce the promotion of Elizabeth K. Fiorino, MD to Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, effective January 1, 2022.

Dr. Elizabeth Fiorino graduated from Williams College in 1998, where she earned a BA in English and a concentration in neuroscience. She went on to receive her MD from New York Medical College in 2002 and completed her pediatrics residency at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, where she also became Chief Resident. Dr. Fiorino completed her pulmonary fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In 2020, she earned a Master of Science in Health Professions Education from Hofstra University. Dr. Fiorino’s clinical interest is in children with rare lung disease, with a special focus on those with pulmonary complications due to treatment for childhood cancer and stem cell transplant.

Dr. Fiorino is a long-standing member of the Children’s Interstitial and Diffuse Lung Disease Research Network and is the site Principal Investigator for the National Registry at Weill Cornell Medicine. She is also a board member of the Children’s Interstitial and Diffuse Lung Disease Foundation (chILD).

Pediatric Pulmonary Fellow Dr. Zenna Solomon Awarded Research T32 Trainee Grant

January 26, 2022

Zenna Solomon, MD, a pulmonary fellow in the Department of Pediatrics, received funding for her study "Disbalance of Sphingolipids in Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia" as part of the Weill Cornell Medicine Multidisciplinary Approach Training in Respiratory Research T32 Trainee Grant.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the lung disease associated with premature birth, often leads to long term consequences such as impaired lung growth, asthma, and early development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The mechanisms for the development of lung disease need to be better understood. Given the emerging role of sphingolipids in lung growth, asthma and COPD, there is a gap in knowledge on these lipids in neonates. Dr. Solomon aims to understand if and how sphingolipids in premature infants are related to the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia and its pulmonary consequences. She will study sphingolipid composition in airways of premature infants and its functional consequences on the development of obstructive airway disease.

The overall goal of Dr. Solomon’s studies is to identify markers for the development of lung disease in premature infants that may help in the development of novel therapies.

Postdoctoral Associate Dr. Fanny Vatter Receives CTSC TL1 Education Award

January 24, 2022

Fanny Vatter, PhD, MSc received funding for her study, “The role of exercise-induced exosomes in breast cancer prevention” as part of the Weill Cornell Medicine CTSC TL1 Education Award.

Epidemiological evidence suggests a high correlation between physical activity and cancer protection and survival. However, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain elusive. Exosomes are small vesicles released by all cell types and efficient messengers in tissue crosstalk. For this study, Dr. Vatter will investigate how exosomes mediate tissue crosstalk during exercise and may be responsible for the benefits of exercise in cancer prevention and survival. She will characterize the source and unique cargo of exosomes mediating cancer prevention and determine the mechanisms by which these exosomes prevent cancer growth and metastasis using murine models of exercise. Finally, in collaboration with Lee Jones, PhD, MSc, Professor of Physiology in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, she will identify the exosome cargo from patients undergoing controlled exercise programs responsible for the beneficial effects of exercise, that can represent the basis of novel preventive or therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Shipra Kaicker Promoted to Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics

January 19, 2022

The Department of Pediatrics is pleased to announce the promotion of Shipra Kaicker, MD to Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, effective January 1, 2022.

Dr. Shipra Kaicker earned her medical school degree (MBBS) from the University of Delhi, New Delhi India in 1991. She then completed her first pediatric residency at Maulana Azad Medical College, University of Delhi in 1995. This was followed by a second pediatric residency in the U.S at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, New York Medical College, New York. Dr. Kaicker completed her Pediatric Hematology Oncology fellowship from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2003. Upon completion of her fellowship, Dr. Kaicker joined the Maimonides Infant’s and Children’s Hospital in Brooklyn, New York as an attending physician and full-time faculty, where she mentored and trained numerous pediatric residents and medical students.

Research Illuminates How Melanoma Readies Lymph Nodes for Tumor Spread

January 18, 2022

This article was originally posted on WCM Newsroom.

Melanoma cells release small extracellular packages containing the protein nerve growth factor receptor, which primes nearby lymph nodes for tumor metastases, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The study results, published on Nov. 25 in Nature Cancer, may one day help doctors determine which patients need more aggressive treatment and could help with the development of new therapies, said senior author, Dr. David Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor in Pediatric Cardiology and a professor of pediatrics and of cell and developmental biology at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Traditionally, scientists have had a tumor-centric view of melanoma in which cells from the tumor break off and travel to nearby lymph nodes, as cancer metastasizes. “What our study shows is that the lymph node functionally prepares for future metastases,” said Dr. Lyden, who is also a member of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health and the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. “There are many changes taking place in the lymph node even before the tumor cell gets there. We call it a pre-metastatic lymph node.”

Dr. Adin Nelson Receives Department of Pediatrics 2022 Pilot Award

January 13, 2022

Congratulations to Adin Nelson, MD, MHPE, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, on receiving the Department of Pediatrics 2022 Pilot Award for his study, What Can One Practice Question a Day Do For Pediatrics Residents?

Dr. Nelson’s project is a national prospective study that will examine how answering daily multiple-choice practice questions can improve residents’ learning. There is a growing body of literature on the strategy of studying with review questions - called retrieval practice, but it’s never been tested on a large scale in the real world. Dr. Nelson is partnering with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Association of Pediatrics Program Directors to study this technique, making it one of the largest prospective studies ever done in medical education.

Deyin Hsing Receives Department of Pediatrics 2022 Young Investigators Award

January 12, 2022

Congratulations to Deyin D. Hsing, MD on receiving the Department of Pediatrics 2022 Young Investigators Award for her translational research project, Annexin A2 As a Potential Mediator in Development of Multi-organ Dysfunction in Children Following Cardiopulmonary Bypass.

Annexin A2 is an intracellular protein that’s instrumental in the maintenance of vascular homeostasis. For this project, Dr. Hsing will study how the degradation of annexin A2 during cardiopulmonary bypass contributes to the development of early organ dysfunction in children, with a special focus on how it impacts respiratory function in the early postoperative period. The study will help researchers better understand the pathobiology underlying bypass-induced organ dysfunction through the identification of new molecular targets, with the goal of informing future interventions in combating the harmful effects of systemic inflammation associated with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Dr. Juhi Kumar Appointed Interim Chief of Pediatric Nephrology

January 11, 2022

The Department of Pediatrics is pleased to announce the appointment of Juhi Kumar, MD, MPH, as Interim Division Chief of Pediatrics Nephrology, effective January 1, 2022. Dr. Kumar is taking on this role following the retirement of Dr. Eduardo Perelstein, who was a dedicated leader of the pediatric nephrology division for seven years.

Dr. Juhi Kumar is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine and an Associate Attending Pediatrician at the NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Kumar received her medical degree (MBBS) from LLRM Medical College in India. She completed a residency in Pediatrics at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, and a fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She also completed a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) at the School of Public Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

She is an expert in conditions affecting the kidneys in children, from congenital structural kidney abnormalities, kidney diseases causing proteinuria and hematuria, high blood pressure and fluid and electrolyte disorders. She cares for patients across the spectrum of kidney disease from acute kidney injury to chronic kidney disease that ultimately require renal replacement therapy, including dialysis and transplant.

Dr. Caitlin Williams Receives Thrasher Research Fund Early Career Award

January 5, 2022

Congratulations to Caitlin Williams, PhD on receiving funding for her study, “Maternal Interference of Infant SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination,” as part of the Thrasher Research Fund Early Career Award Program.

Previous clinical trials for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines did not explicitly investigate maternal antibodies (matAb) or the impact of passive immunity, which is the transfer of ready-made antibodies from the mother to infant. For this study, Dr. Williams’ will investigate how maternal antibodies can protect newborns and infants against COVID-19. She will investigate the capacity of matAb to bind to and neutralize a variety of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, like the delta and omicron variants, to define the potency of maternal antibody, as well as study whether maternal antibody interfere with infant immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines.

The overall goal of this project is to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine to serve as preliminary data for future infant COVID-19 clinical trials, as well as encourage extending the current human trials to newborns.

A New “Epitope” for Universal Influenza Vaccines

December 23, 2021

This article was originally posted on WCM Newsroom.

A team led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine, Scripps Research and the University of Chicago has identified an important site of vulnerability on influenza viruses—a site that future influenza vaccines and antibody therapies should be able to target to prevent or treat infections by a broad set of influenza strains.

The scientists, whose results are published Dec. 23 in Nature, found that a small subset of antibodies elicited by experimental and existing influenza vaccines target a site at the base, or anchor, of the influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) protein—an “epitope” whose significance was not recognized in prior influenza antibody studies.