Reminder: Michael O’Shea, MD, MPH and Rebecca Fry, PhD, will be presenting “Epigenetics, Neurodevelopment and Health of Children Born Extremely Preterm” at our next CRI luncheon seminar series. This event will be held on Tuesday, December 11, from 12:15-1:30pm in MacNider 321 (**Room Change**). Please mark your calendars. We look forward to seeing you there. You can read more about collaborative work of Dr. O’Shea and Dr. Fry at the links below.
Activities Update: The Children’s Research Institute would like to extend a warm welcome to Joseph Hatch, MPH, who joined the Department of Pediatrics in September as a Research Project Manager. Joe comes to UNC by way of Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University, where he worked as a Special Projects Research Assistant in the Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy and Sleep Medicine. In the short time he has been with the CRI, Joe has become an invaluable member of the team and we are happy to have him. Please join us in giving Joe a warm welcome.
On October 9, we submitted a U54 application to the NIH’s Rare Clinical Diseases Research Network on behalf of the Genetic Diseases of Mucociliary Clearance Consortium. This consortium, with Stephanie D. Davis, MD, and Thomas W. Ferkol, MD, serving as co-Principal Investigators, consists of 8 sites across North America, including the Hospital for Sick Children, McGill University Health Centre, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Stanford University, the University of Colorado, the University of North Carolina, the University of Washington and Washington University in St. Louis. The sites are part of a clinical research network to study rare diseases of the airways. This was a tremendously collaborative effort for everyone and we want to thank all of those involved.
On October 12, the CRI and the Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility co-hosted our first research symposium, “Kids Matter! Research to Action in Children’s Environmental Health.” The symposium included talks throughout the day from scientists, clinicians, public health professionals, and graduate students about environmental influences on pediatric neurodevelopment and respiratory health. Thank you to all who attended.
In November, the CRI initiated the process to join the Institute for Advanced Clinical Trials for Children (I-ACT at https://www.iactc.org/). This will enable us to join a network of our peers who are pre-qualified trial-ready sites that collaborate with regional and disease-focused networks.
Awards: We would like to congratulate Neal deJong, MD, MPH, who recently received a KL2 award from the Gene Orringer Junior Faculty Career Development Program at NCTraCS. The awarded project, “Assessing and applying care coordination to improve care for children with IBD,” will conduct a cross-sectional study of children and young adults with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). This study will examine the relationships between current IBD care coordination plans and availability of mental health services, so that barriers to care can be identified and addressed. The study will end with a pilot study of a new IBD coordinated care plan. Congratulations!
The CRI applied for, and was awarded, funds for a shared piece of equipment as part of the School of Medicine’s 2018-19 Research Infrastructure Equipment Allocation. Pediatric researchers moving into the Mary Ellen Jones building were queried as to their needs for this potential piece of equipment. Considering our researcher’s excessive use of microscopes across different cores with time restrictions, the consensus was having a scope in the CRI would provide an advantage. We are excited to have this equipment awarded to our soon to be new physical hub.