Stanford Child Health Research Institute awards $3.6 million for research to improve child and maternal health

For Release: September 3, 2015

STANFORD, Calif.— The Stanford Child Health Research Institute has awarded a total of $3.6 million through its Faculty Scholars and Transdisciplinary Initiatives Program.

Six researchers have been selected to hold endowed Faculty Scholars awards. The awards support junior and mid-level faculty who have university-tenure or medical-center line appointments, and whose research aims to improve the health of expectant mothers, embryos, fetuses, infants, children and adolescents.

Following is a list of recipients and the titles of their research projects:

• Cristina Maria Alvira, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Critical Care): “Essential Physiologic Roles for Nuclear Factor Kappa-B During Lung Development.”
• Catherine A. Blish, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases): “Inflammatory pathways of pregnancy, viral infection, and preterm birth.”
• David B. Camarillo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering: “Investigating Fiber Tract Strain Rate as a Cause of Concussion.”
• Gerald A. Grant, MD, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology: “Molecular Characterization of the Pediatric Blood-Tumor Barrier.”
• Angelle Desiree LaBeaud, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Pediatric (Infectious Diseases): “Integrated Vector Management as a Strategy for Reduced Disease Risk In A Newly Discovered Region of Dengue Fever in Africa.”
• Virginia D. Winn, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology): “Endothelial Dysfunction in Preeclampsia: Implications for Immediate and Long Term Health Outcomes for Mothers and Children.”

Five research projects have been chosen from twenty-three Letters of Intent as recipients of Transdisciplinary Initiative Program (TIP) awards. The TIP program stimulates innovative, heterogeneous groups of scholars working to transform one another’s perspective on a child or maternal health problem. Teams comprise scientists from pre-clinical, clinical, and basic sciences in the School of Medicine to engineering and areas related to bioengineering, computer science and technology, basic and social sciences in H&S, Business, Education, Law, and Earth Sciences.

Listed below are the funded projects and transdisciplinary teams:

iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes to Determine Mechanisms by Which β-Cardiac Myosin Mutations Cause Pediatric Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

• PI: Daniel Bernstein, MD, Pediatrics
• Co-PIs: Beth Pruitt, PhD, Mechanical Engineering; James Spudich, PhD, Biochemistry; Alexander Dunn, PhD, Chemical Engineering

Measuring Children’s Physical Activity and Sleep in the Real World: Processing and Analysis of High-Dimensional Accelerometry Data Using Statistical Learning Techniques

• PI: Manisha Desai, PhD, Medicine
• Co-PIs: Thomas Robinson, MD, Pediatrics; Clete Kushida, MD, PhD, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Scott Delp, PhD, Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering & Orthopedic Surgery; Ram Rajagopal, PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Dennis Wall, PhD, Pediatrics

Cerebellar Circuitry in Development, Learning, and Clinical Conditions

• PI: Heidi Feldman, MD, PhD, Pediatrics
• Co-PIs: Brian Wandell, PhD, Psychology; Bruce McCandliss, PhD, Education; Kristen Yeom, MD, Radiology

The NSD2 methyltransferase in pediatric ALL

• PI: Or Gozani, MD, PhD, Biology
• Co-PIs: Julien Sage, PhD, Pediatrics and Genetics; Justin Dubois, PhD, Chemistry; Norman J. Lacayo, MD, Pediatrics

The role of ALDH2 genetic variation and aldehyde metabolism in hematopoietic stem cell biology and the pathogenesis of bone marrow failure

• PI: Kenneth Weinberg, MD, Stem Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine
• Co-PIs: Daria Mochly-Rosen, PhD, Chemical and Systems Biology; Eric Kool, PhD, Chemistry; Matthew Porteus, MD, PhD, Stem Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine

Authors

Robert Dicks
(650) 497-8364
rdicks@stanfordchildrens.org