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Beyond the Wow Factor: Artificial Intelligence in Pediatrics
 Beyond the Wow Factor: Artificial Intelligence in Pediatrics 1024 576 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

What promise do AI and machine learning hold for pediatrics, and how can their potential flourish while still safeguarding children’s health and privacy? Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have exploded across the worlds of marketing and commerce in recent years. Streaming services track what you watch and suggest other content you may enjoy.…

Going Viral: The AAV Approach to Curing Cancer
 Going Viral: The AAV Approach to Curing Cancer 1024 256 Emily Siebenmorgen
By: Emily Siebenmorgen

According to Timothy Cripe, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, it’s an incredible time to be working on cancer treatment – and now, targeted cancer prevention. “There’s so much going on in the cancer world these days,” says Dr. Cripe, who is also a principal investigator in…

Placing Value on a Pediatric Surgeon’s Academic Work
 Placing Value on a Pediatric Surgeon’s Academic Work 1024 683 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

The addition of an academic RVU system to an existing work RVU-based incentivization plan boosted academic productivity in the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. At many institutions, physicians and surgeons are compensated using a productivity formula based on work relative value units (wRVUs). wRVUs commonly quantify clinical work, practice expenses and professional…

Micro-dystrophin: A Small Gene With Big Promise
 Micro-dystrophin: A Small Gene With Big Promise 1024 632 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

SRP-9001 for Duchenne muscular dystrophy supplies a functional dystrophin gene via AAVrh74 gene therapy. In 1969, Jerry Mendell, MD, was working at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) when he saw his first patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD, a severe form of muscular dystrophy caused by a mutation in the…

Nephrology Education Ripe With Opportunities to Improve Health Equity
 Nephrology Education Ripe With Opportunities to Improve Health Equity 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

The Health Care Justice Committee of the American Society of Nephrology has released recommendations for incorporating anti-racism and social justice concepts into education and mentoring with the goal of improving health equity.   In 2020, leaders in the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) reached out to Ray Bignall II, MD, pediatric nephrologist and assistant chief…

5 Things Neonatologists Should Know About Vitamin K Deficiency
 5 Things Neonatologists Should Know About Vitamin K Deficiency 1024 683 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

Vitamin K prophylaxis is safe and effective. Why are more parents refusing it, and what can be done? In a new perspective paper in the Journal of Perinatology, researchers from Nationwide Children’s say that vitamin K prophylaxis is an essential component of newborn care and yet, parental refusal of the intervention is on the rise.…

Using 3D Motion Capture Technology to Improve Outcomes
 Using 3D Motion Capture Technology to Improve Outcomes 150 150 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

  Kirsten Tulchin-Francis, PhD Kirsten Tulchin-Francis, PhD, joined Nationwide Children’s in March 2022 as director of orthopedic research and director of the Honda Center for Gait Analysis and Mobility Enhancement. In a Q&A, she discusses how she uses motion capture technology to improve outcomes for pediatric patients. What is your area of expertise? I have…

5 Things to Know About Prune Belly Syndrome
 5 Things to Know About Prune Belly Syndrome 1024 683 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller
Linda Baker, MD

Linda Baker, MD, urologist, principal investigator, and one of the world’s foremost experts on prune belly syndrome, recently joined Nationwide Children’s Hospital as the co-director of the Kidney and Urinary Tract Center. She shares some important things to know about this rare disease. 1. Prune belly is a rare, congenital malformation. Prune belly syndrome (PBS)…

New Guidelines Offer a Clear Path for Expandable Endoprosthesis Use in Post-Sarcoma Limb Reconstruction
 New Guidelines Offer a Clear Path for Expandable Endoprosthesis Use in Post-Sarcoma Limb Reconstruction 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Limb salvage operation is the standard of care for pediatric extremity bone sarcomas. These tumors often occur during the second decade of life, when children are growing rapidly. Reconstructive surgeries must account for anticipated remaining growth and the potential for resulting limb inequity. Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma are the most common primary malignant bone tumors,…

Reducing Surgery and Its Associated Risks Through Advanced Interventional Endoscopy
 Reducing Surgery and Its Associated Risks Through Advanced Interventional Endoscopy 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Specially trained pediatric endoscopists can perform a range of diagnostic, interventional and therapeutic procedures for children, allowing them to avoid referral to adult endoscopists or even open surgery.   Muhammad Khan, MD, MPH, FASGE, the new director of interventional and diagnostic endoscopy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, has big plans for the field of pediatric endoscopy.…

Celebrating More Than 100 Heart Transplants — And a Host of Other Heart Program Achievements
 Celebrating More Than 100 Heart Transplants — And a Host of Other Heart Program Achievements 1024 746 Deipanjan Nandi, MD, MSc
By: Deipanjan Nandi, MD, MSc

Deipanjan Nandi, MD, MSc, shares an update about treating heart failure at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. From transplant to ventricular assist devices and pharmaceutical options, the patient-centered care offers innovative options for patients with heart failure.

The New Book on Youth Suicide Prevention
 The New Book on Youth Suicide Prevention 150 150 John Ackerman, PhD and Lisa Horowitz, PhD, MPH
By: John Ackerman, PhD and Lisa Horowitz, PhD, MPH

Our new open access Springer Series book helps close the gap between the latest research in youth suicide prevention and how to make an impact in our communities.  Youth suicide is a public health crisis. It is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 10-17 in the United States, according to data from…

InSight: Total Pancreatectomy With Islet Autotranplantation: The Basics
 InSight: Total Pancreatectomy With Islet Autotranplantation: The Basics 1024 500 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
illustrated cross section of islets from pancreas

Download a PDF version of this image.       This feature was published in the Fall/Winter 2022 print issue. Download the full issue.  Image credit: Mandy Root-Thompson for Nationwide Children’s

New Initiative Aims to Bring Personalized Diagnosis and Treatment to Children With Solid Tumors
 New Initiative Aims to Bring Personalized Diagnosis and Treatment to Children With Solid Tumors 1024 614 Lauren Dembeck
By: Lauren Dembeck
abstract art of magnifying glass over DNA strand

Collaboration among National Cancer Institute, Children’s Oncology Group and Nationwide Children’s Hospital will offer molecular characterization of childhood cancers. The National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI), Children’s Oncology Group (COG), and Nationwide Children’s Hospital are poised to change the direction of pediatric cancer diagnosis and care through a new initiative that is the…

What’s the Relevance of Emotional Intelligence in Medicine?
 What’s the Relevance of Emotional Intelligence in Medicine? 1024 386 Mike Patrick, MD and Erica Banta, MBA, LDSS
By: Mike Patrick, MD and Erica Banta, MBA, LDSS

The practice of clinical medicine requires an intelligent mindset. Strong cognitive intelligence (IQ) is required to develop and maintain a substantial knowledge base and to call upon the critical thinking skills needed to synthesize a hundred points of data into a meaningful clinical picture, correct diagnosis and appropriate management plan. But another type of intelligence…

TPIAT: A Way Forward for Chronic Pancreatitis
 TPIAT: A Way Forward for Chronic Pancreatitis 1024 500 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
illustrated cross section of islets from pancreas

Nationwide Children’s Hospital has assembled a veritable “dream team” of pancreatitis and pediatric transplant surgery experts to offer what they hope will become the world’s preeminent pediatric center for complex pancreatic care. Imagine your child suffering from a sudden, debilitating episode of abdominal pain. No obvious cause, no cure, just pain so severe it requires…

How One Family In Appalachia Changed the Medical Field’s Understanding of Pancreatitis
 How One Family In Appalachia Changed the Medical Field’s Understanding of Pancreatitis 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

More than 30 years ago, a teenager from Kentucky named Kevin Slone had his first attack of acute pancreatitis. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic urged his father, Bobby Slone, to try to document whether other people in the family had similar stomach problems. Bobby Slone took the homework to heart, documenting incidences of similar symptoms…

Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care Increases Access and Equity
 Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care Increases Access and Equity 1024 683 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

With mental health concerns on the rise, more primary care providers are integrating behavioral health services in their practices.  Despite increasing demand for behavioral health care, multiple barriers still exist that limit access for pediatric patients. In recent years, primary care settings across the country have responded by integrating mental health specialists into their practices.…

Salivary MicroRNAs: A Promising Biomarker for Persistent Post-concussive Symptoms in Children With Concussion
 Salivary MicroRNAs: A Promising Biomarker for Persistent Post-concussive Symptoms in Children With Concussion 1024 768 Lauren Dembeck
By: Lauren Dembeck

The multidisciplinary study used children’s saliva and genomic analysis to identify promising biomarkers for persistent post-concussive symptoms. Predicting clinical recovery of children with concussion is challenging. While concussion symptoms typically resolve within one to three weeks, up to one-third of children develop persistent post-concussive symptoms (PPCS), including headache, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, and sensitivity to…

Functional Neurological Disorders: What Pediatric Neurologists Should Know
 Functional Neurological Disorders: What Pediatric Neurologists Should Know 150 150 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

The diagnosis is common, yet this group of disorders has been subjected to confusion and stigma throughout history. Functional neurological disorders are a collection of disorders in which patients experience neurological symptoms, such as numbness, weakness, seizure-like events, or abnormal gait or movements, but without a visible underlying pathology. Underlying mechanisms for these disorders are…

When Every Week Matters: Advancing a Treatment to the Clinic
 When Every Week Matters: Advancing a Treatment to the Clinic 1024 491 Natalie Wilson
By: Natalie Wilson
Illustrations of clock faces at different times and angles

Researchers and regulatory experts bring a potential new therapy for a deadly neurodegenerative disease from IND application to clinical trial enrollment in a matter of weeks, setting a new standard in translating therapies from bench to bedside. In October 2021, the Office of Research Regulatory Affairs (ORRA) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital submitted an Investigational New…

Optimizing the Body’s Natural Cancer Killers
 Optimizing the Body’s Natural Cancer Killers 1024 649 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
artistic rendering of an NK cell on a faded blue background with other cells faintly visible in the background

Recent advances in the expansion and production of natural killer cells offers pediatric patients new hope for remission after high-risk cancer diagnoses. Natural killer (NK) cells are the innate immune system’s first line of defense for viral infections. Although these white blood cells don’t have the antigen-specific “memory” that characterizes T cells or the antibody-producing…

Moving Emergency Medicine Research Forward
 Moving Emergency Medicine Research Forward 1024 614 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Utilizing exception from informed consent studies and a national network of emergency medicine experts, clinician-scientists are advancing research to uncover best practices and improve care. Exception from informed consent (EFIC) is a special rule set utilized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support research in emergency situations. The word exception is particularly…

Improving Racial Diversity and Equity in Clinical Trials
 Improving Racial Diversity and Equity in Clinical Trials 1024 511 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

There is now broad consensus across medicine that clinical trials must be more representative of minority populations. How can that be achieved? Last year, a group of Nationwide Children’s Hospital neonatologists published an unusually pointed critique of racial and ethnic representation in neonatal clinical trials in the Journal of Perinatology. They wrote that the lack…

Exploring Dopamine Genotype as a Moderator of the Effect of Parental Behavior on Children’s Self-Control
 Exploring Dopamine Genotype as a Moderator of the Effect of Parental Behavior on Children’s Self-Control 150 150 Daphne Vrantsidis, PhD
By: Daphne Vrantsidis, PhD

Did you know developmental psychologists have found the secret to life success? It’s not eating your vegetables or doing your homework or anything else your parents or teachers told you growing up. It’s how long you waited to eat a marshmallow when you were 4 years old. Delaying gratification — waiting 5 minutes to eat…

First In Human
 First In Human 1024 752 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller
Top-down view of heart valves

The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has a long history of helping to bring innovations from the lab to the patient. The latest, the Autus Valve, aims to improve care and outcomes for children with pulmonary valve disease. In December 2021, Mark Galantowicz, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon and director of The Heart Center at Nationwide…

Novel Digital Storybook Intervention Aims to Support Children With Hearing Loss
 Novel Digital Storybook Intervention Aims to Support Children With Hearing Loss 1024 683 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Hear Me Read, invented and developed at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, is now being validated in a prospective clinical trial. For children who are deaf or hard of hearing, access to sound via hearing aids and cochlear implants and intensive speech therapy with highly trained verbal therapists are important parts of developing speech and literacy. “Children…

Novel Approaches to Gene Therapies for Patients With Rare Genetic Diseases
 Novel Approaches to Gene Therapies for Patients With Rare Genetic Diseases 150 150 Jessica Nye, PhD
By: Jessica Nye, PhD

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), nearly 7,400 diseases have been identified and classified as “rare” or “orphan” — “rare” because each afflicts fewer than 200,000 people in the United States and “orphan” because drug companies, unlikely to recoup research and development costs from such small patient populations, have historically found them too…

Building Baby Brains With smallTalk: From Foreign Language Learning at Home to Bridging Gaps in the NICU
 Building Baby Brains With smallTalk: From Foreign Language Learning at Home to Bridging Gaps in the NICU 1024 683 Jessica Nye, PhD
By: Jessica Nye, PhD
smallTalk egg

The best language learners on the planet are children — especially babies. Your brain is most active in creating the language center of your brain, connecting neurons and creating the highways and pathways for processing language, during infancy. In fact, language learning begins in utero. The developing brain of a fetus starts to wire language…

Old Drug, New Use
 Old Drug, New Use 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
Nationwide Children's style illustration showing a row of houses with a prescription in front of it

Researchers have discovered an adult diabetes drug may provide a new and better way to treat children  with nephrotic syndrome.  Nephrotic syndrome is one of the most common kidney diseases seen in children. In most cases the cause is unknown. Nephrotic syndrome involves damage to the filtering units of the kidneys (glomeruli) leading to massive…

Improving Neuro-Critical Care Outcomes for Children in Sub-Saharan Africa
 Improving Neuro-Critical Care Outcomes for Children in Sub-Saharan Africa 1024 683 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller
Nicole O'Brien, MD

Nicole O’Brien, MD, is working with health experts in sub-Saharan Africa to develop Centers of Excellence for the use of transcranial doppler ultrasound (TCD).   The first time Nicole O’Brien went to Africa, she was not a doctor. In her words, she “wasn’t even close to medical.” She was staying in a small rural village…

NCHart-1 a New Approach to Estimating Total Body Surface Area Burn Percentages
 NCHart-1 a New Approach to Estimating Total Body Surface Area Burn Percentages 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

The new chart reduces math errors, improving accuracy for better outcomes. When a child has a burn injury, immediate care is essential. Fluid administration and treatment resources needed are decisions made in the field by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics. Both decisions hinge on what percent of the child’s skin has burns. This number…

Biofilm Bacteria Protected by a Form of DNA Resistant to Current Treatments
 Biofilm Bacteria Protected by a Form of DNA Resistant to Current Treatments 150 150 Lauren Bakaletz, PhD and Steve Goodman, PhD
By: Lauren Bakaletz, PhD and Steve Goodman, PhD

Researchers from Nationwide Children’s Hospital identify a structural component of the bacterial biofilm matrix in a novel discovery published in Cell that has strong implications as to how biofilms resist current treatments and how to create new therapeutics that will be effective.   Biofilms are communities of bacteria that are protected by an extracellular matrix…

How Patient-Derived Stem Cells are Changing the Trajectory of Congenital Heart Disease Research
 How Patient-Derived Stem Cells are Changing the Trajectory of Congenital Heart Disease Research 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Small blood samples — and the patient-specific, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) they enable — turn into valuable research material for understanding congenital cardiovascular disorders, especially when united with modern genome sequencing and editing, animal models and three dimensional tissue growth technologies. Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have a significant downside for studying most…

Teens on the Road: How Technology, Policy and Parents Influence Driving Safety
 Teens on the Road: How Technology, Policy and Parents Influence Driving Safety 1024 633 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Traffic crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States. For teens, the stakes are especially high.

Microsurgery for Acute Flaccid Myelitis: Personalized Approach Leads to Remarkable Recoveries
 Microsurgery for Acute Flaccid Myelitis: Personalized Approach Leads to Remarkable Recoveries 1024 440 Lauren Dembeck
By: Lauren Dembeck

Children from around the world are coming to Nationwide Children’s for specialized care for AFM with lower extremity involvement. Dr. Amy Moore invented many of the procedures that are leading to remarkable recoveries for these patients. After an ordinary cold, most people continue with life as usual; however, in some rare cases, a previously healthy…

Reconsidering Screening in Primary Care
 Reconsidering Screening in Primary Care 1024 683 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips
2021 Bright Futures/AAP Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care (Periodicity Schedule) in color showing all of the screenings recommended across 34 patient visits through a patient's twenty-second birthday

Screenings are an important part of preventive care, but the growing list of recommendations is daunting. How do we prioritize the limited time we have with patients and families? There are 32 well-child primary care visits recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics in its Bright Futures “Periodicity Schedule.” The first is prenatal, the last…

Learning in Real Time to Overcome COVID-19 and MIS-C
 Learning in Real Time to Overcome COVID-19 and MIS-C 1024 491 Natalie Wilson
By: Natalie Wilson
Illustrations of clock faces at different times and angles

When multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) emerged in May 2020, the new condition made headlines. Although rare, MIS-C can appear in kids about a month after they’ve recovered from infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — even if they haven’t felt sick at all. “We don’t know why some children develop MIS-C,”…

The 5,000 Babies Project: Screening Newborns for Early Diagnosis of Developmental Delay
 The 5,000 Babies Project: Screening Newborns for Early Diagnosis of Developmental Delay 150 150 Lauren Dembeck
By: Lauren Dembeck

Democratizing health care requires equal access to early identification of infant neurodevelopmental disorders.  Delayed diagnosis of disorders that involve developmental delays, such as cerebral palsy, can lead to lifelong disability. Yet not all families have access to health care facilities employing highly trained specialists who can test for these developmental delays. Infants from minority families…

Dehumanizing Language in the Health Care System Harms Children With Incarcerated Family Members
 Dehumanizing Language in the Health Care System Harms Children With Incarcerated Family Members 1024 683 Rosemary Martoma, MD and Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH
By: Rosemary Martoma, MD and Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH

Dehumanizing Language Causes Harm Labels and language matter. Language has the power to condemn or redeem, and words reflect our values and beliefs as clinicians, scholars, and members of the community.” – Bedell et al., Humanity: Person-First Language in Correctional Health Epidemiology, American Journal of Epidemiology Children with incarcerated family members frequently face stigma and…

She for She: Supporting Women in Orthopaedics
 She for She: Supporting Women in Orthopaedics 1024 575 Julie Samora, MD, PhD
By: Julie Samora, MD, PhD
Julie Samora, MD

Julie Balch Samora, MD, PhD, MPH, an orthopaedic surgeon at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the hospital’s associate medical director for quality, is the 2021 President of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society – the leading international organization championing women in orthopaedics. This column was adapted from her presidential address.   Shalane Flanagan is an American long-distance…

Leaving No Stone Unturned: Nationwide Children’s Joins Children’s Oncology Group Pediatric Early Phase Clinical Trial Network
 Leaving No Stone Unturned: Nationwide Children’s Joins Children’s Oncology Group Pediatric Early Phase Clinical Trial Network 1024 683 Natalie Wilson
By: Natalie Wilson

The Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the world’s largest and most recognized pediatric cancer research collaborative, recently selected Nationwide Children’s Hospital to join its Pediatric Early Phase Clinical Trial Network (PEP-CTN) through a peer review process. The COG PEP-CTN is a re-iteration of the COG Phase 1/Pilot Consortium and is comprised of 21 core member sites…

Growth Hormone is Still Important Beyond the Growing Years
 Growth Hormone is Still Important Beyond the Growing Years 1024 683 Rohan Henry, MD, MS
By: Rohan Henry, MD, MS

The History of Growth Hormone The first reported use of growth hormone (GH) as treatment for severe growth retardation occurred in the 1950s.1 Since that time, growth hormone’s importance in growth promotion has been clear. Its role in promoting normal metabolism even after growth has ended, however, was only recognized in the late 1980s.2 Beginning…

A New Kind of Rectal Diversion in Classic Bladder Exstrophy
 A New Kind of Rectal Diversion in Classic Bladder Exstrophy 1024 754 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

  This article appeared in the Spring/Summer 2021 print issue. Download the full issue.   Medical illustrations by Mandy Root-Thompson for Nationwide Children’s Hospital Source: V. Rama Jayanthi, chief of Urology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital To learn more about the procedure and it’s applications, read A Surprising Approach to Classic Bladder Exstrophy.

A Surprising Approach to Classic Bladder Exstrophy
 A Surprising Approach to Classic Bladder Exstrophy 1024 754 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

A procedure developed at Nationwide Children’s Hospital comes with possible risks but can have a huge impact on quality of life. It’s become clearer over the last two years that a “good outcome” for children born with classic bladder exstrophy is in the eye of the beholder. One of the best outcomes, nearly everyone would…

Targeting DIPG: The Most Puzzling of Pediatric Brain Tumors
 Targeting DIPG: The Most Puzzling of Pediatric Brain Tumors 772 447 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Survival has dramatically improved for numerous pediatric cancers over the last several decades, with a notable and very deadly exception: diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Now, a community of researchers and clinician-scientists have set the stage for a renewed — and better-armed — assault against this beast of a brain tumor. The past 50 years…

Lessons Learned Through a Global Pandemic
 Lessons Learned Through a Global Pandemic 1024 683 Lauren Bakaletz, PhD
By: Lauren Bakaletz, PhD
Lauren Bakaletz, PhD

As a microbiologist and vaccinologist, I spend nearly every day thinking about viruses and bacteria and the diseases they cause, as well as how to best prevent them from doing so. While in graduate school, we were taught about the great ‘flu’ pandemic of 1918 that infected one-third of the world’s population and killed 20-50…

Understanding Immune Responses to Build a Better Vaccine
 Understanding Immune Responses to Build a Better Vaccine 1024 606 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Researchers have used studies of respiratory syncytial virus and infant immune responses to develop a promising vaccine candidate. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an incredibly common yet potentially deadly pathogen. Almost everyone becomes infected with RSV during their first three years of life, but for certain populations — infants and elderly or immunocompromised people —…

Introducing a New SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Candidate
 Introducing a New SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Candidate 1024 512 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller
coronavirus

The new vaccine candidate takes advantage of the long and successful history of the measles vaccine. A team of researchers from The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s have built a novel vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2. The candidate, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), used the measles vaccine as a vector…

Getting Children and Families Outside With PlayStreets
 Getting Children and Families Outside With PlayStreets 1024 683 Tiwana Henderson
By: Tiwana Henderson

A PlayStreet initiative in 2019 from Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families helped more than 350 South Side residents get outside and play – safely. Research has found that children who play outside are more physically active and have stronger social skills that those who do not. Unfortunately, low-income neighborhoods with high rates of crime and lack…