Department of Pediatrics News

Dear Faculty and Friends,

 

Welcome to the December edition of the Department of Pediatrics Newsletter. Here you will find a sampling of all the amazing activity happening within the Department of Pediatrics and at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Thanks to all our talented faculty, trainees, and staff who make this the best Pediatrics Department in the country! As always, for these and other exciting Department of Pediatrics news stories, please visit our Pediatrics News web page.

 

2019 Career Teaching Scholars Awardees

I’m a thrilled to again announce the recipients of the Department of Pediatrics Career Teaching Scholars Award for 2019.

Please join me in congratulating Dan Atkins, MD (Associate Professor, Section of Allergy and Immunology, pictured top left), John Kinsella, MD (Professor, Section of Neonatology, pictured top right), Andrew Bauer, MD (Clinical Professor, Pediatrics, pictured bottom right), and Ted Maynard, MD (Clinical Professor, Pediatrics, pictured bottom left) as this year’s award winners.

Each of these individuals has made outstanding contributions to pediatric education throughout their careers.

The Department of Pediatrics will be honoring them during Pediatric Grand Rounds on December 13 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. with a lobby reception immediately following. So please mark your calendar as we celebrate these gifted teachers.

 

Fry Continues CAR-T Cell Therapy Research

Furthering his exciting work in chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, Terry Fry, MD (Professor of Pediatrics, Hematology and Immunology, Co-Director, Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative), has been awarded a $776,000 research grant from the Department of Defense.

Dr. Fry’s new project titled, “Precision Combinatorial Immunotherapeutic Targeting of Cytokine Receptor Kinase Signaling in CRLF2-Rearranged ALL,” will focus on how B cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL) evades CAR-T cell therapy by developing new model systems to study how this immune evasion occurs.

The goal is to address the treatment of poor-prognosis childhood leukemias, such as B-ALL, and to develop new combinatorial treatments that would shorten the hospitalization time of children with these diseases.

 

New Study Seeks to Advance Pediatric Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Research

Pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension (PPAH) is a severe disorder with high mortality and morbidity, but limited treatment options. Under a new $720,000 research award from the Food and Drug Administration, D. Dunbar Ivy, MD (Professor and Section Head, Section of Cardiology) and colleagues will investigate a novel, developmentally appropriate endpoint in young children ages 0-6 years via a wearable mobile Actigraphy device.

The goal of Dr. Ivy’s project, titled, “A Prospective Study to Investigate the Combination of Physical Activity and Heart Rate with the Use of Actigraphy as a Novel, Well-defined, Reliable, Sensitive, Easy-to-use, and Non-invasive Study Endpoint to Facilitate Pediatric Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Trials and Drug Development for Children Ages 0-6 Years,” is to enable successful PPAH trials and drug development.

Actigraphy is a mobile device that reproducibly and non-invasively measures physical activity that can be readily assessed in the ambulatory setting. Its use may provide a novel, simple and relatively inexpensive approach to monitoring patients and enable the development novel endpoints for assessing drug efficacy in PPAH patients.

 

PHTS Elects Auerbach Vice President

The Pediatric Heart Transplant Society (PHTS) has announced the election of Scott Auerbach, MD (Associate Professor, Section of Cardiology) as Vice President.

PHTS is dedicated to the advancement of the science and treatment of children during listing for and following heart transplantation.

The Society promotes basic and clinical research in the field of pediatric heart transplantation and the development of new therapeutic strategies.

Congratulations, Dr. Auerbach!

 

DeCamp Elected to Society for Pediatric Research

Congratulations to Lisa Ross DeCamp, MD (Associate Professor, Section of General Pediatrics) on her election to the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR).

SPR’s mission is to create a network of multidisciplinary researchers to improve child health while promoting research collaborations through mentoring and knowledge sharing.

Dr. DeCamp will be welcomed as a new member at the SPR Scientific Presidential Plenary during the 2020 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Meeting (April 29-May 6, 2020).

 

Can Babies Learn to Love Vegetables?

That was the question posed by The New Yorker magazine in its November 25 issue that profiled the research work of Susan Johnson, PhD (Professor, Section of Nutrition).

As principal investigator of The Good Tastes Study, Dr. Johnson is pursuing an answer to the chicken-and-egg food preference question: Do we choose them, or do they choose us?

Over the last year, 106 babies have passed through The Children’s Eating Lab to try vegetable food samples. The babies’ galvanic skin response, heart rate, and human expressions when tasting a bitter green vegetable (kale) were compared to those when tasting oatmeal.

A goal of Dr. Johnson’s study has been to determine to the extent of young children’s liking of bitter vegetables and how maternal perceptions influence babies’ food acceptance patterns. The study also seeks to understand why some caregivers persist in feeding disliked foods and others stop.

 

Children’s Colorado Faculty & Medical Staff Survey

The annual survey of Children’s Hospital Colorado-based faculty and medical staff launched on December 2 and will remain open through December 24.

Beginning December 2, faculty will receive an email with a unique individual link to their survey.

All Department of Pediatrics faculty are strongly encouraged to participate in the survey that should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.

Frequently asked questions regarding the survey can be found here.

Please take a moment to complete the survey as this is an important venue for providing feedback to CHCO and Department leadership.

 

PhD Faculty Interest Group Update

The PhD faculty interest group will host an event titled, “Brand Yourself for Success: Using Social Media in Academic Medicine,” on Thursday, January 30 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Mt. Harvard conference room.

The interactive event will assist PhD faculty in using social media in academic medicine and understanding CU policies on social media and methods for responding to others on social media.

 

In closing, on behalf of the entire Department, I wish you, your family, and friends a happy and safe winter holiday season and best wishes for a happy New Year.

Sincerely,

Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Pediatrics | University of Colorado School of Medicine
Pediatrician-in-Chief | Children’s Hospital Colorado