News | Page 3 | Pediatrics

Appointment of Dr. Zachary Grinspan as Vice Chair of Health Data Science

March 21, 2024

The Department of Pediatrics is pleased to announce the appointment of Zachary Grinspan, M.D., M.S. as Vice Chair of Health Data Science, effective March 1, 2024.

Dr. Grinspan is the Director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Program at Weill Cornell Medicine and the NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital at Weill Cornell Medical Center. He is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Grinspan is board certified in Pediatrics, Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology, and Epilepsy. He is also a Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Grinspan most recently served as the Interim Division Chief of Child Neurology where he worked to deliver high quality comprehensive patient- and family-centered care, to encourage the Division’s research activities and collaborative initiatives, and to provide a robust training environment for the next generation of clinicians and pediatrician-scientists.

In this new role, Dr. Grinspan will develop and execute a vision for health data science in the Department of Pediatrics, develop a health data science infrastructure and databases that support the data science needs of the Department and that can be used by the Department faculty, trainees, and staff to conduct innovative research as well as improve child healthcare quality and efficiency.

Gut Bacteria Make Neurotransmitters to Shape the Newborn Immune System

March 18, 2024

Weill Cornell Medicine investigators discovered that unique bacteria colonize the gut shortly after birth and make the neurotransmitter serotonin to educate gut immune cells. This prevents allergic reactions to food and the bacteria themselves during early development.

The preclinical study, published in Science Immunology on Mar. 15, showed that bacteria abundant in the guts of newborns produce serotonin, which promotes the development of immune cells called T-regulatory cells or Tregs. These cells suppress inappropriate immune responses to help prevent autoimmune diseases and dangerous allergic reactions to harmless food items or beneficial gut microbes.

Dr. Claire Otero Receives $150K Grant for Immunology and Vaccine Research

March 6, 2024

NEW YORK – Michelson Medical Research Foundation (MMRF) and Human Immunome Project (HIP) have awarded Dr. Siyuan Ding (Washington University in St. Louis), Dr. Claire Otero (Weill Cornell Medicine), and Dr. Dennis Schaefer-Babajew (Rockefeller University) the Michelson Prizes: Next Generation Grants, the organizations announced today.

The $150,000 research grants are awarded annually to support early-career scientists advancing human immunology, vaccine discovery, and immunotherapy research for major global diseases.

“Understanding and harnessing the human immune system is the next frontier in biomedicine. Already, breakthrough research in immunology has led to therapies that treat disease, improve human health, and save lives,” said Dr. Gary K. Michelson, founder, and co-chair of Michelson Philanthropies. “Catalytic and flexible philanthropic support helps to fund our brightest young minds to develop high-risk, high-impact science and enable future breakthroughs.”

How 1 leader went from the research lab to pediatric cardiology chief

March 4, 2024

Research labs are not necessarily known for the leadership opportunities they create. But for Bernard Kühn, MD, the lab helped lay the groundwork of leadership and administrative work that helped him land his current position.

Dr. Kühn stepped into his new role as chief of the division of cardiology in pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital, both based in New York City, on Feb. 1.

He began working toward his medical degree in Germany before obtaining a scholarship that let him visit medical schools in the United States. He originally explored pediatrics because he thought it may be good knowledge for when he had his own kids. He eventually fell in love with it thanks to the "charismatic and happy cardiologists that made it look fun and always came to the job with a smile."

"I saw that here physicians scientists do a job that I found really attractive and they were able to be scientifically excellent," Dr. Kühn said. "The healthcare structure in Germany is different, where a lot of physicians are stretched extremely thin, but in the U.S. I had the opportunity to meet many great mentors and become involved in early heart regeneration and genetics research."

Dr. Melanie-Wilson Taylor Explains How to Treat Coughs in Kids

February 28, 2024

For parents and caregivers, winter can feel like a never-ending stretch of coughing and sniffles. During cold and flu season, children can have as many as seven to 10 respiratory infections and spend up to 140 days with a symptom related to a cold, says Dr. Melanie Wilson-Taylor, a pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital.

Among the most nagging symptoms of a respiratory virus is a cough. “We are seeing quite a bit of coughs right now, and cases will likely continue to rise for the next few weeks,” says Dr. Wilson-Taylor. “Many of the coughs are caused by colds. But we always tease out the different kinds of coughs and figure out if there’s something more serious happening versus just recurrent viral infections.”

Health Matters spoke to Dr. Wilson-Taylor about what causes a cough, how long they can last, and when to worry.

Dr. Melanie Wilson-Taylor

Investigating the Underlying Mechanisms of Asthma Morbidity in Urban School Children

February 28, 2024

While therapies targeting type 2 inflammation are effective for many patients with asthma, there is a subset of children that continue to have exacerbations. Thus, there is a need to better understand the underlying mechanism of disease in these patients to develop more effective targeted therapies. Plasma interleukin six (IL-6) has been identified as a potential target for asthma treatment in obese adults with severe persistent asthma and metabolic dysfunction. However, less is known about its role in children.

Dr. Michelle Loy Featured in GQ Magazine: The Longest Living People In the World All Abide by the ‘Power 9’ Rule

February 28, 2024

Every day we’re inundated with the “right” things to do to live a longer life. Drink eight glasses of water a day, they say. Go to the pharmacy for an off-label prescription, advise others. And others task us with the impossible—yet promising—task to just keep a positive mindset.

Today, the average life expectancy of an American is 76.4 years, and in 2023 over 70,000 Americans reached their 100th birthday. But in the Blue Zones, or regions of the world where people live exceptionally long lives, individuals are ten times more likely to live to 100. These places—specifically the Barbagia region of Sardinia, Italy, Okinawa, Japan, Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; and Icaria, Greece—are packed with centenarians.

Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in Children’s Health Research Awarded to Pediatric Cancer Specialist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)

February 16, 2024

NEW YORK (Feb. 13, 2024) — Dr. Sumit Gupta, a physician-scientist whose research focuses on vulnerable subpopulations of children with cancer, has been awarded the eighth annual Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in Children’s Health Research, Weill Cornell Medicine announced today.

The Drukier Prize honors an early-career pediatrician whose research promises to make significant contributions toward improving the health of children and adolescents. Dr. Gupta is an associate professor in the Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, both at the University of Toronto, and associate scientist and head of the Section of Leukemia and Lymphoma at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Ontario. He is being recognized for his research using health data to answer important clinical and health policy questions affecting children living with cancer locally and globally.

Dr. Gupta’s most recent research includes studying the late effects of cancer therapy in adolescents and young adults, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, and designing and evaluating a program for the early identification of childhood cancers in Kenya and Cameroon, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Dr. Juan Pascual to Lead Child Neurology at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine

February 16, 2024

NEW YORK (Feb. 16, 2023)—Dr. Juan Pascual, a leading pediatric neurologist, has been appointed chief of the Division of Child Neurology in the Department of Pediatrics at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine, effective March 1.

In his new role, Dr. Pascual will oversee the child and neonatal neurology divisions with a focus on increasing access to high-quality care, expanding scientific research, and recruiting and developing faculty, clinicians and researchers. Dr. Pascual was recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine as a professor of pediatrics, of neurology and of neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute and an affiliate faculty member in the Sage School of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences on Cornell’s Ithaca campus. He will also grow the rare brain disorders program for patients with undiagnosed, complex or severe neurological diseases.

Vaccine Shows Promise Against CMV, a Virus that Causes Birth Defects

February 7, 2024

A new mRNA vaccine in phase 3 clinical trials is better at triggering the immune system to fight cytomegalovirus infection.

An experimental mRNA vaccine against human cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common virus that can infect babies during pregnancy, elicited some of the most promising immune responses to date of any CMV vaccine candidate, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.