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Reminder: The Children’s Research Institute and the Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility will be cohosting this month’s luncheon seminar on Tuesday, May 14, from 12:15-1:30pm in Bioinformatics 1131. Michael O’Shea, MD, MPH and Rebecca Fry, PhD, will be presenting “Epigenetics, Neurodevelopment and Health of Children Born Extremely Preterm.” You can read more about collaborative work of Dr. O’Shea and Dr. Fry at the links below. Please mark your calendars. We look forward to seeing you there.

Activities Update:

Thank you to everyone who came out to visit us at this year’s UNC Science Expo! Our booth explained why research in children’s health is important and spread the word about all of the cutting-edge pediatric research programs at UNC. Our hands-on activities focused on asthma education and highlighted asthma research at UNC, which were a huge hit with kids and their families. We realize it’s a year away, but if you have any ideas for next year’s booth or have any interest in volunteering, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d like to thank the organizers of the event, our volunteers, and our colleagues at the Institute for the Environment for helping everything come together. It was a great day to learn about science and STEM education!

CRI investigators are continuing to move in to Mary Ellen Jones, so pardon our dust if you come to visit. The CRI’s home in Mary Ellen Jones will serve as a physical hub to complement our virtual presence, and will also house the offices and laboratories of many pediatric translational and basic science investigators. We are excited to see everything coming together and cannot wait to begin collaborating!

We were excited to have our pediatric research efforts represented at the Pediatric Academic Society meeting this year, with approximately 50 different abstracts, platform presentations and workshops presented. For our junior researchers and fellows, the Southern Society for Pediatric Research (SSPR) meeting takes place in New Orleans on February 13-15, 2020. This venue has sessions that focus on learner and junior faculty, and provides financial support in the form of travel awards, with approximately 40 awarded this past year. For more information, please visit https://www.southernspr.org/l/default.asp.

Our Department of Pediatrics Day of Scholarship, co-chaired by Michelle Hernandez and Arti Pandya, provided a great venue for residents, fellows, and students to present their research. This year featured 58 oral and poster presentations, including 2 basic science projects, 11 clinical science projects, 9 quality improvement projects, 5 education research projects, and 31 case reports. Congratulations to the winners of the numerous awards, and to everyone for participating.

Lastly, we’d like to congratulate Marcus Carden, MD, an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, who was recently awarded a UNC KL2 Junior Faculty Career Development Award. His project, “Saline vs. balanced crystalloids in sickle cell vaso-occlusive episodes (SALT-VOE),” will survey standard practices of IV fluid use in patients with sickle cell disease who present to emergency departments with vaso-occlusive pain episodes. This project will also examine feasibility of changing standard practices of IV fluid use during these episodes and investigate impact different IV fluids have on sickle red blood cell adhesion.