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FNNDSC Newsletter - April 1st

Updated: 3 days ago

Happy April!! 🌷
Happy April!! 🌷

Upcoming Center-Wide Events:


FNNDSC Spring Research Symposium:

Date: Wednesday, April 8th 9 AM-5 PM, 201 Brookline Ave. Event Center


April Coffee Social:

Date: Wednesday, April 22nd 10-11 AM, South Boston Conference Room

 FNNDSC Faculty Welcoming New Divisional Data Scientist:

Speaker: Nick Giroux, PhD,

Data Scientist, Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital

Topic: Introduction to FNNDSC Faculty – Expertise and Support

Date: Tuesday, April 14th, 12:30-1:30 PM

Lunch will be provided!

  

Spring Lecture Series Calendar:

Speaker: Istvan Huszar, MD, DPhil

Research Fellow in Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital

Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging

Title: TBD

Date: Wednesday, May 20th, 10-11 AM


If you are interested in suggesting a speaker for the FNNDSC Lecture Series, please use the form below to make your recommendation:


Upcoming Holidays: Holiday Schedule

April 1st-9th – Passover

Sunday, April 5th – Easter

Monday, April 20th – Patriot’s Day (Boston Marathon) – FNNDSC will be closed  

Wednesday, April 22nd – Earth Day

All Month – Autism Acceptance Month, Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month, National Volunteer Month, Arab American Heritage Month


For everyone celebrating a significant holiday in April, we celebrate with you!


Conferences & Workshops:

 

Recent Center News:


Presentations & Recognitions:

 

Marina Solti, MD, just matched for a residency in Child Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital and Pediatrics at Westchester Medical Center!

Kamran Salayev, MD, PhD just matched for a residency in Med-Prelim/Neurology-Tufts at Lahey Clinic-MA and Neurology at Tufts Medical Center-MA!


The FNNDSC is so proud of you and your hard work (and happy you will be staying local😊)!


Congratulations to Ellen Grant, MD (winner) and Eleonora Tamilia, PhD (finalist) for being selected for the Trailblazer in Research and Innovation Award as part of this year’s Women’s HERstory Month Awards.

With so many strong nominations in this category, being chosen as the winner and finalist is truly an outstanding accomplishment. We are very proud to have you both represent the FNNDSC, you are well deserving of this recognition! 


 

The HBCD team had two interns, Lainie Louis-Jame and Anji Ashaye, present at the Harvard Psychiatry Research Day on March 11th, 2026. Great work!

Lainie Louis-Jame: Does timing matter? Examining visit time of day and MRI success for unsedated pediatric imaging in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study
Lainie Louis-Jame: Does timing matter? Examining visit time of day and MRI success for unsedated pediatric imaging in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study

 

Anji Ashaye: Designing an Automated Participant Tracker to Streamline Longitudinal Visit Scheduling and Support Retention in the HBCD Study
Anji Ashaye: Designing an Automated Participant Tracker to Streamline Longitudinal Visit Scheduling and Support Retention in the HBCD Study

Stefanie Perrier, PhD, presented in February at The International Newborn Brain Conference (INBBC), a forum that advances research, clinical practice, and education to improve diagnosis, care, and neurodevelopmental outcomes for premature and high-risk newborns. Way to represent the FNNDSC strongly, Stefanie!

Global Birth Cohorts for Nutrition and Neurodevelopment Research: Mapping Networks, Trends, and Gaps. Authors: Perrier S^, Kesri A^, Nassiwa F, Sawant SS, Foster AN, Hsiao CH, Vyas R, Grant PE, Durant KT, Morton S^, Ou Y^.
Global Birth Cohorts for Nutrition and Neurodevelopment Research: Mapping Networks, Trends, and Gaps. Authors: Perrier S^, Kesri A^, Nassiwa F, Sawant SS, Foster AN, Hsiao CH, Vyas R, Grant PE, Durant KT, Morton S^, Ou Y^.

Eleonora Tamilia, PhD, recently gave a talk on “Prediction of Drug-resistance at Epilepsy Onset: An AI-driven, EEG-Informed Tool for Early Clinical Decision Support in Pediatric Epilepsy” at the AI in Epilepsy Conference in Puerto Rico March 16th-19th, 2026.

Great work, Eleonora!
Great work, Eleonora!

 Publications from our Team:

  • Liu K, Sun B, Wang BK, Chen J, Westover MB, Tian FY, Sun H, Kong XJ. An Electroencephalographic Study of Sleep Spindle and Infraslow Oscillation in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Sleep Res. 2026 Feb 10:e70309. doi: 10.1111/jsr.70309. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41668405.

  • Makaram N, Pesce M, Tsuboyama M, Bolton J, Harmon J, Papadelis C, Stone S, Pearl P, Rotenberg A, Grant EP, Tamilia E. Targeting interictal low-entropy zones during epilepsy surgery predicts successful outcomes in pediatric drug-resistant epilepsy. Epilepsia. 2026 Jan;67(1):33-48. doi: 10.1111/epi.18636. Epub 2025 Sep 20. PMID: 40974546; PMCID: PMC12614818. 

  •  Hussain MA, He S, Adams HR, Anagnoustou E, Bellinger DC, Brueckner M, Chung WK, Cleveland J, Gelb BD, Goldmuntz E, Hagler DJ Jr, Huang H, McQuillen P, Miller TA, Norris-Brilliant A, Porter GA Jr, Thomas N, Tivarus ME, Xu D, Shen Y, Newburger JW, Grant PE, Morton SU, Ou Y. Machine learning to infer neurocognitive testing scores among adolescents and young adults with congenital heart disease. Commun Med (Lond). 2026 Feb 6. doi: 10.1038/s43856-026-01417-9. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41651962. 

  •  Bozdag E, Makaram N, Sabino G, Bolton J, Grant EP, Rotenberg A, Tamilia E, et al. Interictal cardiac repolarization abnormalities improve after surgical seizure resolution in pediatric drug-resistant epilepsy. Epilepsia. 2026;00:1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/epi.70206

  •  Natale Castillo, M. I., M.Marsh, C. A.NelsonIII, et al. 2026. “Boosting Representation and Validity in Pediatric Electroencephalography Research: The Conceptualization, Development, and Implementation of the Curly Hair Specialist Initiative.” Developmental Psychobiology68, no. 2: e70120. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.70120

  • Leyla Ismayilova, Narmin Guliyeva, Linyun Fu, Kamran Salayev, Emma Heidorn, Fuad Ismayilov, Parvin Muslumzada & Kerim Munir. Child mental health after institutional care in Azerbaijan: prevalence and correlates. BMC Public Health (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-26678-w


Studies Recruiting:

Dr. Borjan Gagoski and team are in search of participants for their study on Pediatric Edited MRS of the Brain. Please see details in the flyers below: 

 

 

Funding Opportunities for Faculty and Fellows:

 

U.S. Immigration Resources:

Please check the Office of Immigration Services (OIS) page for regular updates and communication: Office of Immigration Services - Welcome!   

 

 

BCH IT Changes: Action Required

  • The way you sign into our VPN is changing; the Microsoft Authenticator app will replace Duo in 2026

  • Instructions to set up Microsoft Authenticator were sent on January 5th, 2026

  • You must set up Microsoft Authenticator to maintain access to VPN, Outlook, and Teams 


Patient/Family Stories and Publications Sharing:

 

The Department of Newborn Medicine wants to stay informed about the exciting and impactful research happening in the FNNDSC. As part of this effort, the team is working to feature patient stories and publications that highlight both research and its clinical impact.

If you have a project or publication that you feel would be a good fit for this effort, please fill out the Research Highlight Form or reach out to caroline.schutz@childrens.harvard.edu with the details.

 

FNNDSC Fun!

Thank you to those who attended the March pot painting coffee social to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!🍀🌈


BCH Events & Involvement:

  • How to sign up for the Landmark Building Newsletter for updates on ARE events: Request An Account

  • Want to meet others with shared interests at BCH? Check out:

 

 Helpful Links:

 

Boston Events 🎆🎉🪩:

 

Way to Shine!🌟

Have you seen a teammate or colleague do something exceptional? Have they gone out of their way to exceed someone's expectations? Let them know that you noticed and that you care! To send a Way to Shine, please follow this link: Bravo! Way to Shine - Boston Children's Hospital (harvard.edu)

 

Brain Games 🧠 📝


HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE?

If you have something that you would like to see featured in the next newsletter, please contact Caroline Schutz caroline.schutz@childrens.harvard.edu


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

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