The Child Health Research Institute and the UNMC Department of Pediatrics welcomes 16 Student Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) participants. This summer there are a record number (101) of SURP students in place at UNMC. They will present their research projects at a poster exhibit in August. Welcome and thank you to all of our SURP researchers and mentors.

Eric Peeples, MD, PhD, associate professor, Division of Neonatology, and CHRI Scholar, has made a point of working with learners on research since he arrived in the Department of Pediatrics seven years ago. He works with undergraduates, med students, residents and fellows and shepherds them through all variety of research projects related to neonatology. Under his guidance, those learners have been recognized with five abstract awards and three research excellence awards and have produced 15 successful publications with the learner as first author. However, his biggest reward is knowing that he is preparing the next generation to take on current and future pediatric research challenges.

Dr. Peeples connects with learners through formal research matching programs with medical and undergraduate students. Resident and fellow partnerships commonly arise through working together during a learner’s Neonatology rotation. Often learners choose to perform clinical research, but Dr. Peeples has also guided several learners through research in his bench research laboratory. A recent example began with a month-long research elective with Amanda Dave, MD, who was then a UNMC pediatric resident. Dr. Dave utilized a collaboration between Dr. Peeples and Zeljka Korade, DVM, PhD, professor, Division of Inherited Metabolic Diseases, to develop her own area of research investigating brain cholesterol and acylcarnitine metabolism following neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. Dr. Dave successfully applied for funding through the Child Health Research Institute (CHRI) grant mechanism and her work in this area earner her 1st place in the 2021 CHRI Pediatric Research Forum in the resident/fellow division as well as the UNMC George Miyzakai research award for a graduating resident with excellence in research. The project has produced two published articles, with a third currently under review.

Although always within the field of neonatology, the learners Dr. Peeples works with often take up areas of research outside of his own work in neonatal brain injury. “If they are planning on having research as part of their future career, rather than having them contribute to one of my projects that is already underway, I find it is beneficial for learners to choose their own are of interest and build it up from scratch,” Dr. Peeples says. “The advantage is that they get experience in some of the key steps, such as writing a grant or completing an IRB application, that will be important for them as they develop their research career.” For example, current pediatric resident, Katie Kim, DO, came into her work with Dr. Peeples with an interest in understanding more about birth defects. Having minimal previous research experience in studying birth defects, Dr. Peeples reached out to a colleague with that area of expertise at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Martha Rhoades, PhD, research manager, School of Natural Resources. Guidance from Drs. Rhoades and Peeples enabled Dr. Kim to develop a project that matched her interests. She obtained funding through the CHRI mini grant and she presented her findings, “Evaluating Placental Passage and Teratogenicity of N-nitrosoatrazine in a Pregnant Rat Model,” during Pediatric Grand Rounds at the most recent CHRI Pediatric Research Forum. "Dr. Peeples is such an incredible mentor, always available to help," Dr. Kim says. "He has truly helped me develop my interest in research and my long-term career goals."

Dr. Peeples revels in the successes of the learners with whom he works and is honored to play the role of mentor. “The world needs far more pediatric researchers so I’m proud to help those I work with build their skills and find the area of study that is right for them,” Dr. Peeples says.

CHRI Priorities & Activities:

Welcome to our summer research students! We have a large number of SURP, MSSRP and Eureka! summer students and interns joining us in our basic science, translational and clinical research activities. Please welcome these individuals and engage them in conversation about your work and why you love child health research. These amazing individuals are the future of child health research, and we would love to have them continue their training and careers here in Omaha. Growing our own talented workforce will enable us to expand our impactful child health research platform. If you aren’t working with a student this year but would like to next year, check this newsletter for announcements of opportunities for mentorship next winter.

I had the opportunity to attend the American Association of Medical Colleges Research Leaders meeting (GRAND) last week. It was a great chance to learn from research leaders across the country and to understand which of our challenges are unique and which are common in university research platforms across the U.S. Common themes at the meeting were biomedical informatics, data management, availability of clinical study coordinators, post-doctoral fellows and open access publishing and the associated high fees. While there were no quick answers, working with others to understand these issues and evaluate possible pathways forward was a great opportunity.

We are excited to host the upcoming Pediatric Cancer Research Symposium on August 25 and are preparing for the second annual CHRI Scientific Meeting to be held in the Scott Center on November 3. We will look forward to hearing about all of the state-of-the-art research that our members have performed at these two meetings and hope to see all of you there.

When you are planning your research activities for the upcoming year, please remember the value of internal awards to get preliminary data for extramural grants. Our CHRI internal awards continue to be evaluated every quarter, and the CHRI newsletter amplifies the announcements of multiple internal awards every month.

The Clinical Research Clinic at Children’s is now open. It is an amazing space for patient visits that is comfortable for our families and convenient for our investigators to see their research patients. Heartfelt thanks to the Children’s Foundation for their generous donation to make this space possible.

As we dramatically increase the number of clinical research studies and research visits we are doing every month, several faculty have identified areas in EPIC that can be improved for research functionality around schedule transparency for faculty and ordering research medications. Are you having research EPIC IT issues? Please let us know! We will be happy to assess the issue and work towards an improved functionality with the great EPIC team.

Wishing you a fantastic summer!

Kind regards,

Ann

Sandra L. Willett, PT, PhD, PCS, is an associate professor in the Physical Therapy Department at UNMC's Munroe-Meyer Institute.

Our clinical translational research team at MMI is currently participating in a NIH national, multi-site trial comparing the START-Play approach ( https://start-play.unl.edu/ [start-play.unl.edu]) to usual care early intervention. In a previous trial, START-Play was found to promote improved cognitive outcomes in infants with significant motor delays. However, our team could not say with confidence that the approach, and not the intensity of services, made the difference. This new trial will allow us to compare a dose-matched intervention so that we can determine if 'content' and not 'amount' matters most in the delivery of early intervention services. 

Are you looking for a particular type of researcher to collaborate with?  

Click here or more information.

New York thrives as a vibrant ecosystem for healthcare academics, entrepreneurs, and visionary leaders who are at the forefront of driving progress in the life sciences. By securing a prominent position among top four states nationwide in terms of life science venture capital investments, New York has solidified itself as an essential destination for biotech startups.

In honor of the fifth anniversary of the grand opening of JLABS @ NYC, Johnson & Johnson Innovation is launching the Science in the City QuickFire Challenge. Innovators from across the globe are invited to submit groundbreaking ideas across the spectrum of healthcare innovation aimed at changing the trajectory of health outcomes for patients.

Learn more here.

Anyone is eligible to submit a nomination on behalf of a faculty member, and self-nominations are accepted. Please submit nominations with a copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae through the NuRamp internal competitions application on or before July 28.

Click here for more information.

On the CHRI website, the Research by Investigators/member profile pages have been updated. Please email chri@unmc.edu if you have any changes to your profile page information. Thank you Jackie Ostronic and Analisa Peyton on your work to rebuild the pages for our nearly 400 CHRI members.