FNNDSC Newsletter - December 29th
- FNNDSC
- Dec 29, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Upcoming Center-Wide events:
January Lecture Series Calendar:
Speaker: Paddy Slator, PhD
Lecturer and Assistant Professor, Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) and the School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University
Title: “Microstructure and Microcirculation Imaging in the Placenta with Diffusion MRI”
Date: Wednesday, January 14th, 10-11 AM
Speaker: Eric Peeples, MD
Associate Professor, UNMC Division of Neonatology
Title: TBD
Date: Wednesday, January 21st, 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:
January Coffee Social:
Date: Wednesday, January 7th 10-11 AM, Hancock Conference Room
Upcoming Holiday Closures:
Wednesday, December 31 – FNNDSC offices close early at 3pm
Thursday, January 1 – Hospital Holiday (New Year's Day)
Monday, January 19th – Hospital Holiday (MLK Day)
Conferences & Workshops:
American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology (ASPNR) Annual Meeting | January 16-18 | Tampa, FL Home | American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology
ISMRM 2025 Workshop on Unlocking the Potential of Prenatal MRI: Advances in Fetal Brain, Heart & Placenta Imaging |March 4-6 | Washington D.C. (Abstract deadline: December 5th, 2025)
Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) | April 24-27 | Boston, MA 2026 MEETING – PAS Meeting
ISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition| May 9-14 | Cape Town, South Africa 2026 ISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition – ISMRM (Early Registration: April 9th, 2026)
American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) Annual Meeting | May 17-20 | Austin, TX ASNR 2026 Annual Meeting - American Society of Neuroradiology (Registration opens: December)
Recent Center News:
Publications from our Team:
Bao R, Foster AN, Song Y, Vyas R, Kesri A, Toubal IE, Kazemi ES, Rahmon G, Kucukpinar T, Almansour M, Ho ML, Palaniappan K, Ninalga D, Koirala CP, Mohapatra S, Schlaug G, Wodzinski M, Muller H, Ellis DG, Aizenberg MR, Arda Aydin M, Abdinli E, Unal G, Tahmasebi N, Punithakumar K, Song T, Peng Y, Bates SV, Hirschtick R, Ellen Grant P, Ou Y. BONBID-HIE 2023: Lesion Segmentation Challenge in BOston Neonatal Brain Injury Data for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy - PubMed
Ahtam B, Knorr A, McLaughlin K, R Rogers-Vizena C, A Feldman H, Cole A, Grant PE, Lildharrie C, Zhang F, Rathi Y, J O'Donnell L, DeGrazia M. Microstructure of white matter fiber tracts in infants with positional plagiocephaly - PubMed
Salayev K, Guliyeva U, Guliyeva S, Kaiyrzhanov R, Aslanova U, Hajiyeva N, Houlden H, Munir K. Attitudes of parents of children with rare neurological disorders towards clinical genetic testing - PubMed
Mondragon-Estrada E, Wang X, Uhler MD, Farooque A, Liu K, Mukherjee SK, Ekramullah SM, Arman DM, Islam J, Suchanda HS, Christiani DC, Warf BC, Mazumdar M, Morton SU. Folate Interaction With Genetic Risk for Neural Tube Defects Among Infants in Bangladesh - PubMed
Presentations & Awards from our team:
Dr. Tamilia’s Lab attended this year’s American Epilepsy Society (AES) Annual Meeting in Atlanta December 5th-8th, which drew more than 5,000 attendees. The lab shared their latest research through three poster presentations and two selected oral presentations, an incredible showing!
Special congratulations to Dr. Navaneethakrishna Makaram and Dr. Georgios Ntolkeras, who were selected to give oral presentations in the Pediatric Highlights Session, a prestigious and highly competitive session featuring the very best pediatric epilepsy research chosen from hundreds of submissions. Two of the ten selected talks came from our very own Tamilia’s Lab!
Navaneethakrishna contributed to four more poster presentations besides his first-author work and Georgios received the Young Investigator Award.
Congratulations to the entire team for representing the FNNDSC so strongly at the 2025 AES meeting!
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
You will receive instructions to set up Microsoft Authenticator on January 5
You must set up Microsoft Authenticator before June 1 to maintain access to VPN, Outlook, and Teams
2026 Research Recruitment Week 2/24-2/26: Attention Faculty
Studies Recruiting:
The HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study at Boston Children’s Hospital (https://hbcdstudy.org/) are in need of parents and their infants to volunteer for an MRI scan (details below) as part of training/piloting.
In addition to the compensation described below, transportation costs are provided as needed. This activity would take place at Boston Children's Hospital at 300 Longwood Ave.
"Infant MRI Scan (30-minutes- 1 hour)"
A scan using magnetic resonance imaging to assist in developing a protocol for future infant scans. The scan would occur when the baby is naturally asleep under the supervision of trained scan technicians and researchers.
-Compensation: $160, a picture of your infant's brain, small gifts for baby + parent
HBCD is also in need of parents and their infants to volunteer in two play-based neurodevelopmental tasks with their 9- to 15-month-old infants/toddlers (details below) as part of training/piloting.
In addition to the compensation described below, transportation costs and childcare for siblings are provided as needed. These activities take place at 2 Brookline Place.
Please contact the HBCD Study (hbcd@childrens.harvard.edu) with any questions or interest in participating.
Bayley Assessment of Infant and Toddler Development (up to 2 hrs)
A play-based activity that assesses various domains of children's development, including motor, visual, and language abilities
Compensation: $50 + diapers, an Uber meal voucher, and small gifts for parent and infant
NIH Baby Tool Box (45 minutes)
This activity primarily uses an iPad, along with some play-based tasks, to assess cognition, executive functioning, language, numeracy/early mathematics, self-regulation, social functioning, and motor skills.
-Compensation: $20 + diapers, an Uber meal voucher, and small gifts for parent and infant
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.
BCH Research Newsletter Submissions:
The next Research Newsletter is scheduled for distribution in early February. Send Submissions for the next Research Newsletter by January 16th. Include approved text, links, images, and headshots to resadmin@childrens.harvard.edu.
FNNDSC Fun!
Thank you to all who joined us for our Annual FNNDSC Holiday Yankee Swap on December 12th! The afternoon was filled with laughter, gift swapping, delicious treats, and celebrating a fun and successful year with wonderful company.
BCH Events & Involvement:
How to sign up for the Landmark Building Newsletter for updates on ARE events:
Want to meet others with shared interests at BCH? Check out:
Helpful Links:
Research Announcements & News▴ Office of Sponsored Programs Updates▴ Grokker ▴ SupportLinc ▴ PeopleSoft/ERP ▴ Flu/COVID Vaccine Central ▴ Ombuds Office ▴ Health Well-Being Programs▴ Onboarding, Setup & Access ▴ eHelp Help Desk/IT: 617-355-4357, help.desk@childrens.harvard.edu
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