CHRI members, pediatric researchers, stakeholders in children's health,

Registration is now open for the CHRI Scientific Conference on December 3. Early bird pricing is available until October 14.

The keynote speaker will be Marius George Linguraru, DPhil, MA, MSc, the Connor Family Professor and Endowed Chair in Research and Innovation at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Linguraru loves to work with multidisciplinary teams of clinicians, scientists and engineers to advance global health and improve the lives of vulnerable children and patients with rare diseases through AI-driven solutions. A distinguished leader in AI research, he also holds faculty appointments as Professor of Radiology and Pediatrics at The George Washington University. He co-founded PediaMetrix Inc., a company focused on improving pediatric health through AI. He joined Children’s National from the National Institutes of Health, earned his doctorate from the University of Oxford, and completed fellowships at the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA) and Harvard University.

Dr. Linguraru has received numerous honors for his contributions to science and medicine, including the Excellence in Engineering Award at the UK Houses of Parliament, the Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), and he is a fellow of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society. His work has been featured in The Economist, The Washington Post, and The Times (London). He has served in leadership roles across prominent scientific societies, including IEEE EMBS, the IEEE Signal Processing Society, and the Society of Medical Information Processing and Analysis (SIPAIM). He is the President of the MICCAI Society.

Research Submission

Outstanding scientific work will be recognized via opportunities to present during the CHRI Scientific conference. Abstract submission will be open until October 30, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. CST. Investigators who submit must be registered or register for the CHRI Scientific Conference by the registration deadline (November 25).

In this Issue:

• CHRI Priorities & Activities: Update from Executive Director Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD
• CHRI and the Department of Pediatrics partners with the Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation Public School for Opioid Abuse Prevention Project
• Responsible Use of AI in Preparation of Grant Proposals
• CITI Program Webinar Registration: Generative AI and Science Communication
• NIH Accepting Applications for the Extramural Loan Repayment Program 
• Research of Aditya Bade, PhD, Receives R01 and R21 Grants
• CHRI Trainees Named Buffett Institute Graduate Scholars 
• Disseminating Discoveries - August Publications
• Funding Opportunities
• Welcome New Members

During the Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation Public School’s (UNPS) health fair in 2023, Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD, executive director of the Child Health Research Institute (CHRI) and Amy Rezac-Elgohary, MA, outreach and education programs manager, engaged in a pivotal discussion with the school’s superintendent, Stacie J. Hardy. This dialogue revealed critical health concerns within the school community, particularly regarding the opioid addiction crisis, underscoring the need for additional support to strengthen the professional resources and prevention education in the school. Specifically, a dedicated drug and alcohol counselor was identified as a priority for addressing substance use disorders within the student population.

The leadership team at UNPS, Dr. Anderson Berry and Amy undertook a concerted effort to secure the resources necessary to address the need for a counselor. Their response involved reaching out to subject-matter experts, including Kenneth Zoucha, MD, an associate professor within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC); Siobhan Wescott, MD, director of the Indigenous and Rural Health Program in the UNMC College of Public Health; and Indigenous and Rural Health Program manager, Lisa Spellman. These collaborations were integral to the development of a comprehensive, evidence-based proposal designed to mitigate the impact of opioid addiction on the school community.

The team successfully obtained funding through the NU Foundation. This funding provides for the employment of a drug and alcohol counselor at Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation Public School and supports a multifaceted intervention strategy. At the core of the proposal is the creation of culturally relevant e-learning modules tailored for two distinct audiences within the school system. First, student-targeted modules aim to increase awareness of the dangers associated with opioid use while incorporating cultural models of healing to enhance engagement and efficacy. Second, educational resources for staff and educators are designed to promote harm reduction strategies and equip school personnel with tools to support affected students effectively.

The approach reflects an understanding of the importance of history, cultural awareness and appreciation and community-led engagement in addressing public health crises. By partnering at every stage with community leaders and integrating culturally specific methodologies with established addiction medicine practices, the initiative aims to foster a supportive and informed environment for behavioral intervention. Furthermore, the program emphasizes sustainability and scalability, with aspirations to replicate the model in other school systems facing similar public health challenges.

This collaborative effort represents an interdisciplinary response rooted in public health, psychiatry and community engagement. The confluence of clinical expertise, cultural knowledge and advocacy underscores the potential for translational impact. Ultimately, the program at Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation Public School is poised to serve not only as a solution to an immediate crisis but also as a replicable framework for addressing complex health disparities across Indigenous communities. 

Writing grant proposals seems, at first glance, like an ideal task for leveraging the power of generative (Gen) artificial intelligence (AI). Grant proposals are lengthy and complex, requiring attention to detail, alignment with the sponsor’s stated review criteria and language smooth and clear enough to be easily digested by peer reviewers. Gen AI tools have the capacity to help with these aspects and lighten the burden of creating a competitive application.

However, most of the potential drawbacks of using Gen AI for publishing your research, covered in last month’s CHRI Research Bulletin, also apply in grant writing. Entering sensitive or proprietary information into a public large language learning model (LLM)-driven chatbot puts it at risk of being disclosed to competitors or other unauthorized persons. The output you receive from a chat bot may contain biased or fabricated information. It may contain other researchers’ original ideas and fail to give them credit. As a grant applicant, just like an author of a manuscript submitted for publication, you must take proactive steps to guard the integrity of your work. So, what sources of guidance are available to help us proceed responsibly as the technology continues to grow and evolve?  

One great place to start is a 2024 peer-reviewed article, “Ten Simple Rules to Leverage Large Language Models for Getting Grants.” The authors, all researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, describe their article as “an enthusiastic yet cautionary tale outlining 10 best practice tips for using LLMs during your grant writing journey.” Some of the 10 rules mirror the concerns stated above (for example, “Consider data privacy limitations,” “Fact check everything”). Each comes with brief advice on why it is important and how to comply with it. Some of the other 10 rules offer coaching to help a researcher learn how to apply AI technology for grant writing (“Use this iterative process to become a better grant writer”, “Use custom prompts for specific feedback”). Other tips seek to differentiate between what the AI can do for us, versus the irreplaceable intellectual skills we need to keep cultivating, such as critical thinking, expert judgement, creativity and a vision of one’s own research path.  

Next, keep a close eye out for any written policies of the funding organizations you plan to apply to. Instructions around use of generative AI are starting to emerge from a few funders, and they vary significantly. 

• National Institutes of Health (NIH). In July 2025, NIH released a brief policy notice titled, "Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications” (NOT-OD-25-132). Although the notice acknowledges, “AI tools may be appropriate to assist in application preparation for limited aspects or in specific circumstances,” it focuses more on the risks to scientific integrity and originality. “NIH will not consider applications that are either substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants.” NIH plans to continue using detection software to identify AI-generated proposals, and violations could trigger administrative enforcement actions. 

Given NIH’s restrictive stance, if you do use AI tools to assist in appropriate “limited aspects” of the proposal, transparency about how you used them is important. You can disclose this in the application cover letter, and in some cases, it may even be worth describing in the research plan.

• National Science Foundation (NSF). In December 2023, NSF released a memo titled, “Notice to research community: Use of generative artificial intelligence technology in the NSF merit review process.” Regarding use of generative AI for proposal preparation, the memo states, “Proposers are encouraged to indicate in the project description the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop their proposal.” The NSF memo mentions the potential risks that generative AI can pose, like fabrication, falsification or plagiarism, that could constitute scientific misconduct. It reiterates that investigators are responsible for managing these risks to ensure the integrity of their proposal.

• American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA is one of the few non-government funding organizations whose websites provide guidance on use of generative AI in preparing research proposals. A subsection within AHA’s “Points to Note for New Research Proposals” conveys an open attitude and prioritizes transparency. It reads, “The AHA permits the use of a large language model (LLM – e.g., ChatGPT) or a generative artificial intelligence tool to create and/or edit content in research proposals submitted for funding. This information must be disclosed at the time of submission.”

Finally, be sure your use of generative AI in preparing a grant proposal aligns with policies of your institution. For investigators at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the UNMC AI Use Guidelines, subsection on Use for Research, provides instructions that pertain to grants as well as publications:

• “When considering using generative AI in a research context, it is essential to investigate how much and what type is permitted. Funding agencies and journal publishers may have particular guidance. At a minimum, when you use generative AI output in scholarly works, disclose and describe how you used it and identify the sections of the work that include generative AI output.”
• “Patient data may not be used within AI tools. Only public or Low Risk Data may be used with AI tools, unless a legal enterprise agreement and confidentiality agreement have been established with the third party and the required assessment process has been completed, or the tool is listed on the UNMC Approved Technology List.”

We will provide further guidelines in future issues of the CHRI Bulletin about the use of AI tools in grant proposals and in service as a peer reviewer. If you have feedback or other aspects you would like to have addressed, please share them with Matt Sandbulte, CHRI’s scientific writer.

This webinar discusses the use of generative AI (GenAI) for science communication. You will learn practical strategies for applying GenAI tools in research communication planning, enhancing research communication, and reviewing research communications. In addition, you will review the current limitations of GenAI in research communications and considerations for the ethical disclosure of GenAI.

When and where do I attend?

This complimentary webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 30, 2025 at 2:00 pm Eastern / 11:00 am Pacific.

Meet the Presenter

Mohammad Hosseini, PhD - Northwestern University

Dr. Mohammad Hosseini is an assistant professor of ethics at the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. He holds a PhD in ethics from Dublin City University (Ireland) and MA in applied ethics from Utrecht University (the Netherlands).

NIH is accepting applications for the Extramural Loan Repayment Program (LRP) through November 20, 2025. Awardees can receive up to $100,000 in qualified educational debt repayment with a two-year award (plus 39% for tax payments). There is no limit on the number of renewal applications as long as eligibility criteria are met. Apply by the November 20, 2025 deadline! Attached is a presentation with some key details.

To be eligible, you must:

• Be a U.S. Citizen, National, or Permanent Resident
• Hold a doctoral degree or equivalent (e.g., M.D., Ph.D., Pharm.D., Psy.D., D.O., D.D.S., D.V.M.). The Contraception and Infertility LRP also accepts applications from certain predoctoral applicants and allied health professionals.
• Have educational loan debt of at least 20% of annual base income
• Have research funding from a domestic nonprofit institution – this could include government agencies and/or a university at which you are employed. You do NOT need NIH funding to apply.
• Be spending at least 20 hours per week conducting qualified research

To learn more about eligibility requirements, application dates, and the benefits of receiving an LRP award, be sure to visit the LRP website, check out the overview video, and consider attending the LRP Technical Assistance Webinar scheduled for October 9, 2025. Contact lrp@nih.gov with questions about eligibility or your application.

Please reach out to the NICHD LRP team before applying to discuss alignment with NICHD and NIH priorities.

Research of Aditya Bade, PhD,

Receives R01 and R21 Grants

Child Health Research Institute member, Aditya Bade, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, recently received notice that his research has received an R01 grant and a R21 grant.

His project, "Synergistic Effect of Nicotine and Antiretrovirals on Placental Development" received an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH/NDA). His R21 project is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH/NICHD). His projects seeks to develop novel chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to non-invasively identify antiretrovirals (ARVs)-induced developmental neuronal impairments in rodent embryo brain during gestation with a goal of unraveling altered metabolites as early-stage biomarkers.

Dr. Bade responded to our questions regarding his recent research projects and the grant application process.

1.   Can you provide greater detail on your R01 project?

The number of women living with human immunodeficiency (LWH) virus type 1 (HIV-1) getting pregnant while on antiretroviral therapy (ART) is steadily rising. This is due to the growing availability of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) at affordable prices worldwide. Each year, more than a million LWH women have given birth while on ART. Although ART has significantly reduced the rate of vertical HIV-1 transmission to less than 1%, risks of adverse events on fetal outcomes linked to in utero ARVs exposure remain a major concern. Studies showed that HIV-1-exposed uninfected (HEU) children are at increased risk for pre-term delivery, infectious morbidity, mortality, immune abnormalities and impaired growth or neurodevelopment. Yet there are gaps in understanding of how in utero ARVs exposures may impact placental development, the key regulator of fetal growth.

One of the major reasons behind this limitation includes co-morbidities complicating the interpretations. There is a substantial knowledge gap about the effects of comorbid ARVs and substance use on placenta. Several addictive agents are commonly used by pregnant LWH women, however, globally, nicotine exposure through smoking or tobacco use remains as one of the major co-morbidities. Smoking is an independent risk factor for adverse fetal outcomes. Nevertheless, whether and how, ARVs and nicotine together produce synergistic effects to exacerbate adverse effects on placental development affecting pregnancy outcomes is unknown.

Thus, this proposal seeks to uncover how co-exposure of commonly utilized integrase transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) and nicotine exacerbates adverse effects on placenta development, identify underlying mechanisms and develop therapeutic intervention means to alleviate the impact of co-morbidity. At the conclusion, the proposal will advance the field in understanding how co-exposure of nicotine can influence INSTIs associated placental toxicity, potentially aiding for development of new guidelines to improve pregnancy outcomes. We are thankful to the NIH/NIDA for supporting these efforts.

2.   What was the process like applying for funding? Did you run into any hurdles along the way?

The approach to the NIH grant application is always challenging. The proposal should align with NIH-defined high research priorities and address major public health problems. Moreover, the application requires meticulous attention to details while writing, a team with complimentary expertise to support the goal and finally, significant preliminary data to support the hypothesis. Fortunately, all these critical pieces were in place for the application which led to successful R01 acquisition.

4.   Please describe your R21 project.

My R21 project is in collaboration with my PhD advisor, Yutong Liu, PhD, professor, UNMC Department of Radiology. It is always a pleasure and proud feeling to work with him and achieve new goals.

As mentioned earlier, advances in ARVs have achieved remarkable success in preventing gestational HIV-1 transmission from mother to fetus. This is reflected in the rising numbers of children who were HIV-1-exposed uninfected (HEU). Worldwide, the numbers of HEU children exceed 16 million, with more than one million children joining this group every year. Although HEU children remain uninfected, they are at an increased risk of neurodevelopmental deficits. HEU children exposed to in utero ARVs are known to have poor neurodevelopment across multiple domains including cognitive, motor, language and socio-emotional functions. An understanding of in utero ARV-associated developmental neurotoxicity is limited due to the time required for longitudinal assessment of functional neurodevelopment post-birth.

Therefore, the development of a novel non-invasive bioimaging tool for the early recognition of gestational ARV exposure linked to adverse effects on neurodevelopmental cellular processes is timely. Such a bioimaging tool will define ARVs, or a class thereof, that produce adverse effects on neurodevelopment irrespective of classification, administration route or PK profile. Therefore, we now seek to develop new application of CEST MRI to successfully monitor in utero ARV-exposure-associated embryo brain metabolomic and macromolecular dysregulations in a mouse model. Due to its non-invasive nature, the successful implementation of CEST MRI to study neurodevelopment in rodent models will provide a tool with a translational potential for early-stage biomarker discovery.

5.   Will the funding of these projects result in the expansion of your lab and team?

Yes, these new projects will lead to the expansion of my laboratory and will bring educational and training opportunities to new graduate students and post-doctoral research fellows or early-stage investigators at UNMC. Being a UNMC alumni, nothing makes me prouder than seeing that my research accomplishments are bringing new educational and training opportunities for next generation of scientists at UNMC.  

Colman Freel, MD/PhD Program Candidate

Rebekah Rapoza, MD/PhD Program Candidate

Colman Freel and Rebekah Rapoza, two UNMC MD/PhD candidates and Child Health Research Institute (CHRI) trainees, have been named 2025–26 Buffett Early Childhood Institute Graduate Scholars. Freel and Rapoza are mentored by CHRI executive director Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD.

The Buffett Early Childhood Institute Graduate Scholars program, which has invested over $700,000 since 2016, supports doctoral students across University of Nebraska campuses with one-year fellowships up to $25,000. The program fosters innovative research in early childhood education and development while encouraging collaboration across disciplines.

Freel’s project, titled “Cardiovascular Wellness from the Womb,” explores the role of the endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition and the therapeutic potential of Maresin-1 in vascular remodeling in infants of diabetic mothers. His research seeks to advance understanding of infant cardiovascular health and identify novel therapeutic strategies to mitigate risks associated with maternal diabetes.

Rapoza’s research focuses on perinatal health disparities, specifically investigating how maternal socioeconomic status influences placental gene regulation and expression. Her work aims to uncover the biological mechanisms that contribute to health inequities in newborns, with the potential to inform interventions that improve outcomes for vulnerable populations.

The Buffett Institute also recognized Ali Shull, a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, for her research on the impact of social media on parents’ mental wellbeing. Together, the 2025–26 Graduate Scholars exemplify the program’s commitment to advancing early childhood research and fostering cross-campus collaboration.

The evolving frontiers of pediatric dermatology - From steroid stewardship to targeted therapies. Harter N*. Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 2025;37(4):365.

* Department of Dermatology

Hesitancy and confidence in pediatric COVID-19 vaccination among diverse caregivers of unvaccinated children. Costello LM, Kerns EK*, McCulloh RJ*, Roberts JR, Blatt DB, Tanski SE, Smith TR, Dehority W, Huntwork MP, Alamarat Z. Vaccine. 2025;61.

* Department of Pediatrics

Low-Dose Bevacizumab 0.03 mg for Treatment of Type 1 Retinopathy of Prematurity. Hejkal TW, Sinha S*, Rishi P, Jain SF*, Rychwalski PJ*. Ophthalmology Retina. 2025;9(8):807-11.

* Division of Ophthalmology, Children's Nebraska; Department of Ophthalmology, UNMC

Mediating Impact of Intranasal Oxytocin on the Interaction Between Irritability and Reactive Aggression in Youth with Severe Irritability. Son JJ, Suk JW, Garvey WF, Edwards RT, Leibenluft E, Blair RJR, Hwang S*. Life. 2025;15(8).

* Department of Psychiatry

A novel combined laparoscopic-endoscopic overstitch technique for pediatric gastric ulcer perforation: An innovative approach to repair of hollow viscus perforations. Huang-Pacheco A*, Thomas P^†, Zarroug A^†, Shah AA. Journal of Surgical Case Reports. 2025;2025(8).

* Division of Gastroenterology

^† Division of Pediatric Surgery

An observational study of the lung microbiome and lung function in young children with cystic fibrosis across two countries with differing antibiotic practices. Wang W, Chen Y, Rasic M, Ascoli C, Hatch JE, Nemsick NK, Deschamp AR*, Davis SD, Sanders DB, Ranganathan S. Microbial Pathogenesis. 2025;205.

* Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine

• Prachi Agrawal, UNMC Pharmaceutical Sciences PhD Student
• Qais Alloah, MD, Assistant Professor, UNMC Division of Pediatric Cardiology
• Morgan Beebe, MD, Assistant Professor, UNMC Division of Pediatric Nephrology
• Daniel Hames, MD, Assistant Professor, UNMC Division of Pediatric Critical Care
• Yiqun Jiang, PhD, Statistician, UNMC College of Public Health
• Elizabeth Jilek, MD, Assistant Professor, UNMC Division of Pediatric Palliative Care
• Grace Murray, MD, Assistant Professor, UNMC Division of Hematology/Oncology
• Katie Sila, Research Nurse Coordinator, Child Health Research Institute
• Kim Tyrey, Department of Pediatrics Division Administrator
• Yingying Wang, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska - Lincoln