June 25, 2025

SCIENCE SHOWCASE

American Diabetes Association Presents Jill Weissberg-Benchell with Lois Jovanovic Transformative Woman in Diabetes Award

Jill Weissberg-Benchell, PhD, CDCES, Pediatric Psychologist in the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, received the Lois Jovanovic Transformative Woman in Diabetes Award, one of the 2025 Professional Membership Awards from the American Diabetes Association. The award recognizes a female professional in the diabetes field who has made outstanding contributions to diabetes research, clinical practice, diabetes education, public health, and/or other related disciplines.

Simplifying Pediatric Cancer Research with Storytelling

When a leukemia patient relapsed after years of treatment, Kevin McNerney, MD, turned to a groundbreaking clinical trial using a one-time immunotherapy infusion that included a synthetic receptor designed to identify cancer cells. In this case, the treatment helped the patient defy the odds and ultimately resulted in a positive outcome. Dr. McNerney recently recounted this experience during a TED-style Eureka Talk, where he shared his passion for advancing cancer research and developing safer, targeted treatments for children. The Eureka Talks serve as a forum to equip physician-scientists with valuable skills for sharing the impact of their research.

NEWS FROM THE RESEARCH PILLARS

Be it peanuts or other triggers, many families live with the day-to-day risk that their child might experience a sudden and scary allergic reaction. Pediatric emergency department visits in the United States to treat acute allergic reactions more than tripled from 2008 to 2016.

But once they arrive at the hospital, many children are staying much longer than necessary according to a study involving more than 5,000 children conducted at 31 hospitals in the US and Canada. Findings were published June 10, 2025, in Lancet: Child and Adolescent Health.

While many children experiencing anaphylaxis stay for long hours, even overnight, after receiving a dose of epinephrine, 95% could be safely discharged within two hours and 98% within four hours.

“We studied how long patients who have severe allergic reactions need to be watched before we can be pretty confident that they won't need more major treatments,” said study co-author Kenneth Michelson, MD, MPH, pediatric emergency medicine specialist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We found that for most patients, we are probably observing them too long. This might sound minor, but if you brought your toddler in for a scary allergic reaction, it's the difference between going home at 11pm versus going home at 1am or 3am. Our finding gives us more confidence that after a couple of hours, if symptoms are improving in specific ways, we can probably send the child home. Of course, this always depends on the specifics of a patient's reaction, but the new insight our study provides is going to save time, money and provide a lot of reassurance.”

Scientists from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and colleagues identified several proteins from the umbilical cord blood of preterm newborns that signal acute systemic inflammation as an immune response to infection, providing objective and noninvasive means to diagnose early onset sepsis. This finding could spare infants from prolonged exposure to unnecessary antibiotics, which leaves them at risk for subsequent serious infections and dysregulation of the microbiome that can impact the immune system and metabolism. Results were published in JCI Insight.

Early onset sepsis occurs within 72 hours of life and is more common in preterm infants. It usually develops in utero, and intraamniotic infection is often the trigger for preterm birth. Early onset sepsis is hard to diagnose definitively from clinical signs, so antibiotics are started while waiting for culture results. Among very low birth weight infants nationally, 78 percent receive antibiotics after delivery. Around 25 percent of these babies are continued on antibiotics even when culture results are negative because they are presumed to have sepsis.

“Cord blood is an excellent source of information on the state of the baby’s health at the time of delivery. Cord blood biomarker results can be available within 24 hours, allowing physicians to rule out early onset sepsis and discontinue antibiotics with more confidence,” said lead author Leena B. Mithal, MD, pediatric infectious diseases specialist and Neal, Kathleen, and Adam Kulick Endowed Research Scholar at Lurie Children’s, as well as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “This could be an important advance in the care of premature infants.”

The Rising T1DE Alliance (Rising T1DE), a national collaborative spearheading innovation in type 1 diabetes care, is transforming how healthcare systems leverage data, technology, and collaboration to drive improved patient outcomes. Launched in 2020 through grant supports from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Rising T1DE’s work is helping shape a future where proactive, integrated, real-time diabetes management becomes the new standard of care. A recent $5.1 million grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago adds Lurie Children’s to Rising T1DE’s leadership to focus on actively disseminating scalable, sustainable solutions across the broader diabetes care ecosystem.

Initiated in 2016 at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Rising T1DE was born from a bold vision: to use real-time, integrated data to guide clinical decision-making and prevent adverse outcomes. At the heart of Rising T1DE’s work is the Diabetes Data Dock (D-Data Dock)— a cloud-based population health management software that integrates data from the electronic health record (EHR), self-management devices, patient reported outcome surveys, and other sources. D-Data Dock helps clinical teams proactively identify and engage high-risk patients, enabling earlier, targeted interventions while reducing friction for research. By aligning data from various sources and improving its consistency and quality, research can more effectively support ongoing efforts and expand its reach.

When it comes to family leave, American fathers are left behind.

In a survey of new fathers led by scientists at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University, 64% of fathers reported taking less than two weeks of leave or no leave after the birth of their child. Only 36% of dads reported taking more than two weeks of leave. The survey is the first of a state-representative sample of fathers.

In the survey, fathers reported that the main barrier to taking any leave or longer leave was a fear of losing their job.

“We know the U.S. lags behind the rest of the world in availability of paid family leave,” said corresponding study author Clarissa Simon, PhD, MPH, research associate at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and senior research scientist at Lurie Children’s. “We still are not there yet. What we found with this study is that if there was the availability of paid leave, fathers would have fewer barriers, and they’d take it.”

Many of the young people with kidney disease the experts at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital treat will develop cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, by midlife. Ideally, preventing this outcome is the goal, but it is very difficult to identify sick hearts at the earliest stages of cardiac disease using existing tests such as echocardiography. Investigating this further is Alexander Kula, MD, MHS, Attending Physician of Nephrology (Kidney Diseases) at Lurie Children’s, whose new study funded by a National Institutes of Health K23 grant will test whether measuring cardiac function with exercise may be more useful for identifying hearts at risk in young people with kidney disease.

Dr. Kula is collaborating with the cardiopulmonary exercise laboratory at Lurie Children’s to use ergometer (bike) stress echocardiogram to measure cardiac function in study participants. This clinical test, which is new to children, represents an improvement on existing protocols that used treadmills because it allows for generating real-time imaging at various stages of exercise, explained Dr. Kula. Importantly, it also allows researchers and clinicians the ability to monitor how the heart responds to increasing exercise intensity in real time. Lurie Children’s is one of the few children’s hospitals nationwide that can offer this advanced testing. “This study nicely demonstrates how Lurie Children’s fosters cross-specialty collaboration, in this case between nephrology and cardiology. As a result, patients benefit from unique expertise provided by the hospital.”

On September 29, 2024, Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern United States, causing damage to one of the largest manufacturing plants for intravenous fluids that led to supply chain shortages of this widely used treatment. Following this event, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that hospitals and medical centers initiate approaches to conserve intravenous fluids. A team led by researchers at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago have generated findings that provide a better understanding about how these adaptations to the use of intravenous fluids influenced care so as to guide efforts toward more resource-conscious practices.

The team evaluated changes in intravenous fluid use, including ones resulting from strategies adopted to conserve intravenous fluids, and clinical outcomes (intravenous fluid administration, admission, 7-day return visits, return visits with admission, and blood testing) among children aged 17 years and younger cared for in emergency departments. According to findings of their study published in a research letter in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the use of intravenous fluid in the pediatric emergency department decreased following the hurricane. They also noted a reduction in blood testing and hospitalizations, and there was no change in unscheduled return visits to emergency departments that led to hospitalization. The change in the care of patients during the intravenous fluid shortage, the researchers conclude, means there are opportunities to improve the delivery of care in the future.

Experts from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago affirm the need to screen new fathers for mental distress, recognizing the mounting research that underscores the importance of fathers in child development. Their invited commentary, published in JAMA Pediatrics, accompanies a systematic review, which found that paternal depression, anxiety and stress in the perinatal period are associated with poorer child development in social, emotional, cognitive and language domains.

“Birth of a child can be highly stressful for both parents,” said lead author Craig Garfield, MD, MAPP, pediatrician and founder of the Family & Child Health Innovations Program (FCHIP) at Lurie Children’s, and Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “In the U.S., new mothers have been screened routinely for postpartum depression since 2010. We need to apply the same strategy to new fathers, since more and more studies like this one show that paternal mental health impacts child development and the wellbeing of an entire family.”  

The Pediatric Pandemic Network, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently presented the Pilot and Emerging Issues Project Award to Erica Popovsky, MD, Medical Director of Emergency Preparedness and Attending Physician in Emergency Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Sara Huston, MS, Principal Investigator of the Genetics and Justice Laboratory at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. The $74,487 award (award period June–August 2025) will support their pilot study, Post-Disaster Family Reunification Drills Using Rapid DNA. 

When disasters strike, children can become separated from their caregivers for hours, days, or even weeks. Every moment of separation can worsen a child’s physical and emotional well-being. Fast and safe reunifications are critical, but ensuring children are reunited with the right caregivers is also essential to avoid further harm. DNA testing is often used after disasters to identify victims, but it has not been widely used to help reunite living family members—until now. A recent initial pilot study at Lurie Children’s revealed that most caregivers and healthcare providers in Chicago are open to using DNA to help reunite families. The study highlighted the potential of rapid DNA, a technology that can analyze DNA samples and provide results in less than two hours. This could be a game-changer in speeding up family reunification efforts after a disaster, the researchers said.

Approximately one in three pediatric mental health Emergency Department (ED) visits resulting in admission or transfer exceeded 12 hours, and over one in eight exceeded 24 hours, according to estimates based on nationally representative data from 2018 to 2022. Seven in 10 of all kids staying in the ED over 12 hours were there for suicidal thoughts or attempt, and over half for aggressive behaviors. Findings were published in the Journal of American College of Emergency Physicians.

“Our study underscores significant issues with access to mental health care for children and adolescents, who often face prolonged ED stays because a psychiatric bed is not available,” said lead author Jennifer Hoffmann, MD, MS, Behavioral Health Medical Director, Emergency Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “As the youth mental health crisis continues, we have been seeing more severe psychiatric conditions in the ED. Most of these kids seek emergency care at adult hospitals, which often have more limited pediatric resources compared to children’s hospitals and might not be prepared to provide the necessary supports.”

MANNE RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN THE MEDIA

• Illinois Health Officials Raise Concerns Over Changes to CDC Vaccine Committee - WTTW
• A Father’s Poor Mental Health may Harm his Children’s Development, Study fFnds – CNN
• Dads of Newborns in Need Find Support from Each Other in Northwestern University Program - Chicago Sun-Times 
• Tina Tan, MD, Discusses Impact of FDA’s Stricter COVID-19 Vaccine Policy for Children - Contemporary Pediatrics
• Experts Share Everything Parents Need to Know About Childhood Weight and Wellness - The Everymom
• Staying Mindful of Youth Mental Wellness – SmartBrief
• ‘Terrifying’: Trump Cuts CDC’s Drowning-Prevention Team - Politico