May 23, 2025

SCIENCE SHOWCASE

Christina Rojas Named Academic Pediatric Association RAPID Scholars Award Recipient

The Academic Pediatric Association presented Christina Rojas, MD, Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine, at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, with the RAPID Scholars Award. The award (award period 2025–2026) will support her study, Healthcare Navigation after the Emergency Department: Evaluating for Inequities Based on Patient and Family Language.

Patients and families who use languages other than English are a growing population in the United States. Prior studies have found that these patients experience healthcare inequities, though less work has explored how this population navigates healthcare once discharged from the emergency department, according to Dr. Rojas. This project will utilize two methodologies: a retrospective cohort study and a qualitative component to understand how patients and families who use languages other than English navigate healthcare. The results will inform the development of interventions to better support these patients.

Jennifer Rossen Receives Career Starter Grant from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation

The Knights Templar Eye Foundation recently awarded the Career Starter Grant to Jennifer Rossen, MD, Attending Physician and Clinical Practice Director, Division of Ophthalmology, at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The $90,000 grant will fund her work to standardize crystallin gene-disease associations and variant interpretation, develop an accelerated approach for ocular gene and variant curation, and, subsequently, improve treatment avenues for children with cataracts.

Pediatric cataracts are a significant cause of vision loss. Approximately half of cases have an identifiable genetic etiology, which can lead to personalized recommendations regarding ocular screenings, predicted visual outcomes, and potential systemic comorbidities. This information is useful for clinicians and families alike, and in some cases can significantly decrease disease morbidity. However, genetic testing for pediatric cataracts is unstandardized and inconsistent in terms of gene content and variant interpretation across laboratories. To standardize genetic testing for pediatric cataracts and improve diagnostic yield, gene-disease associations and variant curation guidelines per the National Institutes of Health-supported Clinical Genome Resource are needed. Although Clinical Genome Resource efforts define clinical relevance of genes and variants for use in precision medicine and research, it is left to each research group to procure the necessary funding.

Kyle MacQuarrie Welcomes Summer Intern Supported Through the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Pediatric Oncology Student Training Program

This summer, Kyle MacQuarrie, MD, PhD, Attending Physician, Hematology, Oncology, Neuro-Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation, at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, will mentor a student intern supported by funds from the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Pediatric Oncology Student Training Program.

Logan Mansfield, an undergraduate student at Loyola University, will assist Dr. MacQuarrie on a project examining how a chemosensitizing drug may be changing the organization of chromatin and the nucleus when rhabdomyosarcoma cells are exposed to it. Dr. MacQuarrie’s research focuses on how chromosomal organization in rhabdomyosarcoma cells affects tumor resistance to chemotherapy, with the hopes of identifying ways to sensitize resistant tumor cells to chemotherapy and improve the treatment of children diagnosed with these types of tumors. Logan’s goal is to become a physician-scientist who specializes in pediatric oncology.

NEWS FROM THE RESEARCH PILLARS

Imitation is important for learning skills and forging relationships, but some autistic children struggle with this social behavior. A study published in the journal Autism Research—the largest study of imitation ever conducted—has generated new insights into the reasons why imitation is difficult for these children.

The researchers assessed 708 autistic and non-autistic children aged 7–12 years using a series of tests that measured social, cognitive, and motor processes. They found that there are many reasons that autistic children might struggle to imitate, with motor coordination ranking as the most important factor. Importantly, they found that motor coordination was similarly important to imitation for both neurotypical children and autistic children.

Researchers derived pragmatic models that accurately distinguish mild, moderate and severe pneumonia in children, based on evidence from a study performed in 73 Emergency Departments (EDs) in 14 countries through the international Pediatric Emergency Research Network (PERN). The new predictive tools are intended to complement clinician judgement in deciding whether a child’s pneumonia warrants hospitalization or intensive care. The study was published in the journal Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

Community-acquired pneumonia is one of the most common infections in children worldwide and represents one of the most frequent and costliest reasons children are hospitalized in the United States. Although most children with pneumonia fully recover after a mild illness, around 5 percent become severely sick and develop serious complications.

“While only a small percentage of children with pneumonia will have severe outcomes, it’s crucial to identify these patients early so clinicians can act swiftly and aggressively to prevent further deterioration in these children,” said lead author Todd Florin, MD, MSCE, Associate Division Head for Academic Affairs & Research for the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “It is also important to know if the illness will likely be mild, in order to avoid potentially unnecessary tests or treatments or unnecessary hospital stays.”

Sensory overload, or overstimulation through the five senses that feels like too much for the brain to handle, was reported by nearly three in four parents in Illinois, according to a survey from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The top three causes of parental sensory overload were children arguing, loud noise level from children, and messiness from toys and clutter.

“Sensory overload in parents has received little research despite being a very common experience, as our survey revealed,” said the report’s lead author Marie Heffernan, PhD, Director of Voices of Child Health at Lurie Children’s and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Parents are often overwhelmed, and our previous work found that more than half of parents reported their stress level had increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.”

While the overall participation in healthcare services by fathers is low, those without health insurance or a college degree were less likely to interact with the healthcare system compared with fathers with health insurance or a college degree, according to a study published in Maternal and Child Health Journal.

The research team from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and the Georgia Department of Public Health conducted the state-representative study of fathers in Georgia, examining the associations between fathers’ sociodemographic characteristics, healthcare utilization (having a primary care physician, having any type of recent healthcare visit), and self-reported health status. They analyzed data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) for Dads population-based cross-sectional study, which sampled 857 fathers in the state of Georgia from October 2018 to July 2019. It surveyed fathers 2–6 months after their infants’ birth to assess paternal experiences and behaviors during the perinatal period.

Abeona Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: ABEO) and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago announced that Lurie Children’s is now activated as the first Qualified Treatment Center (QTC) for ZEVASKYN (prademagene zamikeracel) gene-modified cellular sheets. This groundbreaking therapy will be used to treat wounds associated with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) – a rare skin disorder characterized by severe, painful wounds that can lead to systemic complications impacting the length and quality of life. Lurie Children’s has completed QTC start-up activities enabling it to begin patient identification for scheduling of ZEVASKYN treatment. Treatments are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2025.

MANNE RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN THE MEDIA

• New Models Help Docs Distinguish Severe Pneumonia in Children - U.S. News & World Report
• Less Than Half of CPS Schools Have Herd Immunity from Measles, State Data Shows - Chicago Sun-Times
• New Breastfeeding Device Could Ease Anxiety for Moms and Improve NICU Care - CBS News
• Majority of Parents Report Sensory Overload From Daily Family Chaos - Neuroscience News
• Fluoride Bans Threaten Oral Health of Rural and Low-Income Kids, Pediatrician Warns - Northwestern News Now