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FNNDSC Newsletter: May 30th



Upcoming Center-Wide events:

June Lecture Series Calendar:


Speaker: Chiara Casella, MSc PhD

Research Fellow in the Research Department of Early Life Imaging at King’s College London

Title: Applications of High-Field MRI in Neurodevelopment: From Paediatric Epilepsy to Brain Iron Imbalance in Preterm Infants

Date: Wednesday June 4th 10-11 am

 

Speaker: Anne CC Lee, MD MPH

Levinger Family Professor of Pediatrics at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University Founding Director of the Brown Global Alliance for Infant and Maternal Health Research (Global AIM)

Title: Healthy Beginnings: Prenatal Nutrition, Infections and Early Child Development in Rural Ethiopia

Date: Wednesday June 18th 10-11 am

 

Speaker: Michelle Fernandes, MBBS MRCPCH DPhil(Oxon)

Title: "Fulfilling their Developmental Potential: Lessons on Early Child Development Across Populations & Geographies"

Date: Wednesday June 25th 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:

 

June Coffee Social:

Date: Wednesday 6/11 10-11 am, South Boston Conference Room



 

June Holiday Closure:

The FNNDSC will be closed Thursday, June 19th, in accordance with Juneteenth, an official hospital holiday

 

Upcoming Conferences:

Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Conference | June 24-28 | Brisbane, Australia

Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS) Scientific Sessions | July 23-26 | Baltimore, MD

Fetal, Infant, & Toddler Neuroimaging Group (FIT’NG) Annual Conference | September 7-8 | Dublin, Ireland

American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting | October 14-18 | Boston, MA

American Epilepsy Society (AES) Meeting | December 5-9 | Atlanta, GA

 

Helpful Links:

Help Desk/IT: 617-355-4357, help.desk@childrens.harvard.edu

 

 

U.S. Immigration Resources:

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

  • OIS will host webinars for Scholars as more information becomes available regarding immigration changes and any potential impact on BCH-sponsored J-1 Scholars resulting from the actions against Harvard.

  • *We currently do not have anyone in the division on an HIO sponsored visa* 

  • At this time, no formal travel restrictions have been announced. Although OIS is continuing to urge caution when planning non-essential international travel. If you do plan to travel internationally, the OIS recommends reaching out to them beforehand (Contact Information).  

  • For those who are on visas through Intrax, mostly students, please see the below guidance for international travel and contact mpelayo@intraxinc.com: 




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 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.

  1. Bayley Assessment of Infant and Toddler Development (up to 2 hrs)

  2. -A play-based activity that assesses various domains of children's development, including motor, visual, and language abilities

  3. -Compensation: $50 + diapers, an Uber meal voucher, and small gifts for parent and infant

  4. NIH Baby Tool Box (45 minutes)

  5. -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

 

Recent Publications from our Team:

Yetisir F, Abaci Turk E, Feldman HA, Gagoski B, Didier RA, Barnewolt C, Estroff JA, Wald LL, Adalsteinsson E, Grant PE. Fetal MRI: Radiofrequency Safety Assessment at 3 Tesla. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2025 Apr 17. doi: 10.1002/jmri.29797. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40243139.


Mondragon-Estrada, E., Newburger, J. W., DePalma, S. R., Brueckner, M., Cleveland, J., Chung, W. K., Gelb, B. D., Goldmuntz, E., Hagler, D. J., Huang, H., McQuillen, P., Miller, T. A., Panigrahy, A., Porter, G. A., Roberts, A. E., Rollins, C. K., Russell, M. W., Tristani-Firouzi, M., Grant, P. E., Im, K., Morton, S. U. (2025). Noncoding variants and sulcal patterns in congenital heart disease: Machine learning to predict functional impact. iScience, 28(2), 111707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.111707


Mondragon-Estrada, E., & Morton, S. U. (2025). Protocol to analyze deep-learning-predicted functional scores for noncoding de novo variants and their correlation with complex brain traits. STAR Protocols, 6(2), 103738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2025.103738  


Funding Opportunities for Faculty and Fellows:

 

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.


Here’s an example of a recent feature on Dr. Stella Kourembanas’ research: Stella’s research.


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


 

FNNDSC Fun!

Spring FNNDSC Research Symposium, Friday, May 2nd 2025



This bi-annual event was an amazing and successful opportunity for our Center to gather and celebrate the science and ongoing research in our community! Congratulations to all of our postdocs, research assistants, and student interns for their hard work presenting their projects and fascinating scientific contributions.


Congratulations to the top three award winners from the research symposium!


German Figueroa with his talk titled, "Early Assessment of Cerebral Hemodynamics in Sickle Cell Disease Using Quantitative Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (qNIRS)"
German Figueroa with his talk titled, "Early Assessment of Cerebral Hemodynamics in Sickle Cell Disease Using Quantitative Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (qNIRS)"

Enrique Mondragon Estrada, with his talk titled, "Computational Metagenomics for Bacterial Detection in Neonatal Sepsis in Vietnam" 
Enrique Mondragon Estrada, with his talk titled, "Computational Metagenomics for Bacterial Detection in Neonatal Sepsis in Vietnam" 


Tiffany Berry with her talk titled, "Enrolling Pregnant Individuals in Research: Insights From The Boston Children's Hospital HBCD Study"
Tiffany Berry with her talk titled, "Enrolling Pregnant Individuals in Research: Insights From The Boston Children's Hospital HBCD Study"

Thank you to our faculty for participating in the interactive panels!



 

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:

  •  The Grokker Spring Into Bloom Challenge is taking place from May 19 through June 8. This is a great opportunity to join a team that aligns with your well-being goals, supporting each other in making meaningful progress together. The challenge leads up to the Eversource Walk for Kids. You’ll find all the details on how to create a Grokker account and register for the challenge in the below flyer.




 

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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