Intramural Pediatric Research Seminar Series (IMPRESS)
The Intramural Pediatric Research Seminar Series (IMPRESS) is a monthly, hybrid program being curated as part of the Department of Pediatrics Strategic Plan 2027 initiative to promote and highlight research collaborations. Our goal is to provide an opportunity to discover the wide variety of amazing cutting edge, interdisciplinary and collaborative work being done across the Department of Pediatrics.
We invite you to join us in-person or virtually for this event on the last Tuesday of each month from 3.30pm-5.00pm.
Upcoming Seminar
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
3:30pm-5:00pm
Hosted on zoom or in person in the Wilf Family Center
Topic and Speaker Information Coming Soon!
2023 Seminar Schedule
January 31st, 2023
February 28th, 2023
March 28th, 2023
April 25th, 2023
May 30th, 2023
June 27th, 2023
July 25th, 2023
August 29th, 2023
September 26th, 2023
October 31st, 2023
November 28th, 2023
Past Seminars
September 26, 2023
SUPER Award Reception
Award Recipients:
Jenna Dick
Targeting dysfunctional natural killer cells in Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)
Lucas Dornan
Mental health in pediatric germ cell tumor survivors
Nhi Lang
Do medical complexities impact the effect of psychological conditions (ADHD, anxiety) on executive functioning in children?
Lay Lay
Prenatal education for prevention of congenital infection in infants born to Karen Women
Dana Yang
Generation of chemoresistant CIC0DUX4 sarcoma cell lines
August 29, 2023
tDCS and Cognitive Training as a Neurodevelopmental Intervention in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Speakers: Blake Gimbel, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Investigators: Jeffrey R. Wozniak, PhD
Youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) show differences in brain and behavior development, and attention and executive functioning are common areas of impairment. Novel interventions have the potential to favorably alter neurodevelopmental trajectories during critical periods of brain development. The purpose of the current study is to use mild brain stimulation (transcranial direct current stimulation [tDCS]) to augment a tailored cognitive training regimen targeting attention and working memory in youth with FASD ages 8-17 years. The current study builds on our group’s recent pilot RCT in children ages 9 to 16 with FASD, in which we demonstrated that this intervention was safe, well-tolerated, and led to greater improvements in attention performance compared to sham-tDCS.
July 25, 2023
Optimizing iron status while minimizing morbidity in HIV-infected Ugandan Children
Speakers: Sarah Cusick, PhD and Anne E.P. Frosch, MD, MPH
Investigators: Sarah Cusick, PhD and Anne E.P. Frosch, MD, MPH
Pediatric iron deficiency and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coexist in many regions of the world. Iron deficiency is an established cause of impaired cognitive and behavioral development, but iron is frequently withheld from anemic, HIV-infected children for fear of increasing opportunistic and other infections, although this practice is not evidence-based.
In a new era of widespread use and success of pediatric anti-retroviral regimens, children with HIV are living longer, healthier lives, and achievement of their full developmental trajectory is a new public health imperative. We will present the results of our recently completed, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of iron in Ugandan children 6 months- 12 years with HIV and anemia, focusing on the effect of iron on iron status, incidence of infection, composition of the gut microbiome, and markers of inflammation.
June 27, 2023
Cytomegalovirus: A Ubiquitous Agent with Protean Clinical Manifestations, Well-Suited to Team Science Studies
Speakers: Erin Osterholm, MD and Mark R. Schleiss, MD
Investigators: Erin Osterholm, MD and Mark R. Schleiss, MD
Previous research has suggested a higher rate of overweight and obesity in autistic children and adults. With the increased prevalence of both childhood obesity and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is important to investigate associations of obesity within the ASD population. The purpose of this study was to describe child characteristics and family feeding practices in families of children with ASD and their association with BMI and obesity.
May 30, 2023
A Descriptive Study of Child and Family Variables Related to Obesity in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Speakers: Stacey Brandjord, PhD, NCSP, CCC-SLP
Investigators: Amy Esler, PhD, LP and Claudia Fox, MD, MPH
Previous research has suggested a higher rate of overweight and obesity in autistic children and adults. With the increased prevalence of both childhood obesity and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is important to investigate associations of obesity within the ASD population. The purpose of this study was to describe child characteristics and family feeding practices in families of children with ASD and their association with BMI and obesity.
April 25, 2023
Exploring Novel Therapeutics for Pediatric and Adult Glioblastomas
Speakers: Okay Saydam, MSc, PhD
Investigators: Okay Saydam, MSc, PhD and Gunda I. Georg, PhD
The current treatment of glioblastoma is based on a DNA-alkylating chemotherapeutic agent temozolomide (TMZ) that is administered after radiotherapy. When combined with radiation therapy, TMZ only increases the median survival rate of glioblastoma patients from 12.1 months to 14.6 months. However, the beneficial effect of TMZ is short-lived due to rapidly developing chemoresistance. DNA repair has been indicated as one of the critical factors contributing to mechanisms of chemoresistance in glioblastomas. We recently discovered that glioblastoma cells acquire drug resistance by switching to an alternative, effective DNA repair pathway called Homologous Recombination (HR). Rad51, a key factor in HR, plays a central role in the HR repair of double- strand DNA breaks (DSBs). We found that targeting Rad51 using a chemical inhibitor, B02, kills TMZ resistant glioblastoma cells. Our goal is to develop patentable derivatives of B02 and test their tumor killing effect in in vivo pediatric and adult glioblastoma mouse models with the ultimate goal to develop a clinical candidate.
March 28, 2023
Fetal-neonatal iron deficiency and prenatal choline supplementation alters chromatin accessibility and histone H3K9me3 landscapes in the adult rat hippocampus
Speakers: Shirelle Liu and Tenille Fredrickson
Investigator: Phu Tran, PhD
Fetal-neonatal iron deficiency (ID) results in long-term neurodevelopmental impairments with persistent hippocampal gene dysregulation, which implicates early-life ID-induced epigenetic alterations. Our previous work demonstrated that prenatal choline (a methyl donor) supplementation can partially reverse these behavioral and transcriptomic effects. Emerging evidence also suggests an interaction between iron and choline in regulating the hippocampal epigenome. Therefore, our lab is currently investigating how ID, choline supplementation, and their interaction affect the epigenetic landscape that could underlie the long-term gene dysregulation in the adult rat hippocampus.
February 28, 2023
The Gap in Early Life Immunity Between Nature and Conventional Laboratory Mouse Models
Speakers: Nathan Schuldt, PhD
Investigators: Sara Hamilton Hart, PhD and Nathan Schuldt, PhD
Microbes are an ever present part of normal life that fundamentally shape immune development. Yet, common laboratory animal models limit microbial exposure to reduce the confounding effects of variable microbial experience, resulting in animal models that may not reflect natural immune development or responses faithfully. We investigate the gap between mice that develop under physiological microbial burden and mice raised under conventional specific pathogen free conditions to understand the influence of microbial exposure on immune function.
January 31, 2023
A Team Science Approach to Identify the Role of Genetic Ancestry in Ewing Sarcoma Tumorigenesis using Human iPSC Modeling
Speakers: Kelsie Becklin, PhD and Rachel Moss
Investigators: Beau Webber, PhD and Logan Spector, PhD
Ewing Sarcoma (ES) is a rare but deadly bone tumor, with stagnant survival rates for decades despite knowing the driving oncoprotein, EWS-FLI1. The Spector and Webber labs combine computational, population genetics, and stem cell engineering approaches to understand the etiology of Ewing sarcoma. We have leveraged the disparate incidence of ES between European (EUR) and African (AFR) ancestry to study ES tumorigenesis in iPSC-derived cells from donors with a range of AFR ancestry. We present the results of functional and molecular profiling from our pilot, describing the novel, scalable model of early EWS-FLI1 response and identification of thousands of ancestry-linked changes to gene expression and EWS-FLI1 binding. As EWS-FLI1 itself has proven elusive to direct targeting, studying its immediate downstream effects has the potential for establishing new druggable biologic pathways for treatment of ES.