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FNNDSC Newsletter- July 24th


We hope you are enjoying Boston Summertime!
We hope you are enjoying Boston Summertime!

Upcoming Center-Wide Events:


Summer Lecture Series Calendar:

The FNNDSC Lecture Series is on a break in July and August for the Summer season, we will resume with speakers Tuesday mornings in September.

Please reach out to caroline.schutz@childrens.harvard.edu if you have speaker reccomendations!

 

August Coffee Social:

Date: Wednesday, August 12th 10-11 AM, South Boston Conference Room

 

FNNDSC Park Potluck:

Save the Date: Saturday, September 12th ~10-2 PM

All FNNDSC members and their families are invited to join us for the 2nd Annual FNNDSC Family Park Potluck!

More details about the location, how to contribute, and planned activities will be shared soon.


Upcoming Holidays: Holiday Schedule

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

Monday, September 7th –Labor Day observed, FNNDSC will be closed   

 

Conferences & Workshops:


Recent Center News:


Notable Publications from our Team:

  • Yoshikawa MH, Figueroa G, Dominguez-Villasenor ME, Grant PE, Sutin J, Warf BC, Lin PY. Intraoperative effects of ETV and CPC on intraventricular pressure and pulsation amplitude: A preliminary investigation of the hydrodynamic model of infant hydrocephalus. Read their work here.

  • Darzidehkalani E, Hsiao CH, Bao R, Weiss RJ, Bates SV, Song Y, He S, Li J, Bjornerud A, Hirschtick RL, Grant PE, Ou Y. SparseMed3D: Foundation Models for Sparse Instance Medical Segmentation. Read their work here.  

  • Wilson S, Jeong S, Wilkins-Haug L, Grant PE, Rollins CK, Morton SU, Im K. Linking maternal blood pressure with fetal cerebral haemodynamics and cortical growth in congenital heart disease. Read their work here.  

  • Liu K, Li H, Zhang S, Xi M, Zhu J, Chen J, Xu W, Xie A, Makriyannis A, Guo JJ and Kong X-J. Targeted stool metabolomics suggests exploratory catecholamine- and tryptophan-linked metabolic features in autism spectrum disorder. Read their work here.

  • Hostalet N, Herrera-Escartín D, Cobos-Aumatell L, Berrío-Soto M, Ahtam B, Guerrero-Pedraza A, Canut P, Gomar JJ, Salgado-Pineda P, Salavert J, Ramiro N, Inarejos Clemente EJ, Sarró S, Salvador R, Martínez-Abadías N, Pomarol-Clotet E, Im K, Fatjó-Vilas M. Hidden in the cortical folds: Sex-specific sulcal pits patterns in schizophrenia. Read their work here.  

  • Tsai A, Samal S, Lamonica P, Morris N, McNeil J, Pienaar R. Clinical deployment and prospective validation of an AI model for limb-length discrepancy measurements using an open-source platform. Read their work here.

  • Morton SU, Mondragon-Estrada E, Qian R, Oluwafemi OO, Au KS, Northrup H, Chung WK, Agopian AJ, Findley TO. The impact of nationwide folic acid fortification on genetic variants associated with conotruncal heart defects. Read their work here.  

 

Awards & Noticings:

Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2026 Bordeaux, France June 14-18:

Andrea Gondova, PhD, FNNDSC Postdoc, organized an OHBM symposium titled, “Imaging the Fetal Brain: From Acquisition to Clinical Impact,” on June 15th, 2026, including speakers: Kiho Im (PhD), Georg Langs (PhD), Romaine Corroenne (PhD), and Ramya Muthukrishnan. She also co-organized and moderated a discussion session with Nikhil Bhagwat (PhD) titled, "AI in Academia: panacea or a Trojan horse?,” on June 18th, 2026. Impressive work, Andrea!

 

Dr. Kiho Im (FNNDSC faculty), Dr. Georg Langs, Dr. Andrea Gondova (FNNDSC postdoc), and Ramya Muthukrishnan (FNNDSC graduate student intern)
Dr. Kiho Im (FNNDSC faculty), Dr. Georg Langs, Dr. Andrea Gondova (FNNDSC postdoc), and Ramya Muthukrishnan (FNNDSC graduate student intern)

 Ellen Grant, MD, also presented an OHBM symposium titled, “All for One and One for All”: Multi-view Approaches in Early Brain Imaging,” on June 17th, 2026.


Eleonora Tamilia, PhD, FNNDSC Faculty member, received the Early Stage Investigator Travel Scholarship from the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation® (“PERF®”) to attend the “2026 Curing the Epilepsies” meeting at the NIH campus in Bethesda (June 8-10), where she presented her epilepsy research work.

 

Funding Opportunities for Faculty and Fellows:

 Grant writing resources:

 

U.S. Immigration Resources:

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

 

 

BCH IT Changes: Action Required

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

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

 

Reminder for RESEARCH STAFF: Complete Annual Mandatory Education (AMEs) in Cornerstone - September 30th

 

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:


The Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study team at Boston Children's Hospital is looking for 9- to 15-month-old infants and toddlers to volunteer for one or both of the play-based neurodevelopmental assessments below as part of the training and piloting of these assessments for the HBCD Study.

  1. Bayley Assessment of Infant and Toddler Development (up to 2 hours, $50 compensation): A play-based assessment that evaluates multiple areas of child development, including motor, visual, cognitive, and language skills.

  2. NIH Baby Toolbox (45 minutes, $20 compensation): This assessment primarily uses an iPad, along with several play-based activities, to evaluate cognition, executive function, language, early math skills, self-regulation, social functioning, and motor development.

In addition to compensation, all volunteers will receive diapers, an Uber Eats meal voucher, and small gifts for both mom and child as a thank-you. Transportation costs and childcare for siblings can also be provided, if needed. If you are interested, or know someone who might be, please email hbcd@childrens.harvard.edu.

 

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.

 

 Helpful Links:

FNNDSC Fun!

Our Center on the Map 🌍

We are proud to have members in our Center from 19 different countries! Kudos to Ankush Kesri for creating this amazing visual to celebrate our diversity 🌟
We are proud to have members in our Center from 19 different countries! Kudos to Ankush Kesri for creating this amazing visual to celebrate our diversity 🌟

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:

 

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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