Researcher Recognition, July 2024
Post Date: July 31, 2024 | Publish Date:
Congratulations to these Cincinnati Children’s scientists who have recently been recognized in their fields of expertise.
Jamila Hackworth Named Chair-Elect of AAMC Group on Faculty Affairs
Jamila Hackworth, MSEd, EdD, associate director of the Office of Academic Affairs and Career Development, was elected chair-elect of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Faculty Affairs (GFA). Hackworth has been committed to the GFA since 2014, serving in various capacities including the GFA Program Planning Committee and the Professional Development Committee. She has also contributed significantly to GFA Professional Development Conferences over the years as a committee member and co-chair of the joint conference planning committee in 2023. She will serve as Chair-Elect for the academic years 2024-2026 and as Chair from 2026-2028. Learn more about the GFA
Cosette Rivera Cruz Receives Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Award
Cosette Rivera Cruz, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Division of Oncology, was selected as one of only 30 postdoctoral fellows in the United States to receive the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Award. The award provides $60,000 over three years to support the career development activities for underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows whose training and professional development are guided by mentors to help them advance their careers in biomedical or medical research. Rivera Cruz is a key lab team member and mentee of Susanne Wells, PhD, director of the Epithelial Carcinogenesis and Stem Cell Program.
Mingxia Gu Selected for Stem Cell Reports Early Career Editorial Board
Stem Cell Reports selected Mingxia Gu, MD, PhD, assistant professor, Center for Stem Cell & Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM), for its Early Career Editorial Board, which includes 10 distinguished early career scientists. Read more about this honor
Melinda Butsch Kovacic Co-Hosts Panel for AAMC
Melinda Butsch Kovacic, PhD, professor, Division of Asthma Research, and associate director of community outreach and engagement for the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, served as a panelist for the first of a two-part interactive learning series by the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Center for Health Justice. The series highlights approaches to building stronger collaboration between community organizations and academic medicine institutions to improve population health, especially in underserved communities. Jack Kues, PhD, professor emeritus, UC Department of Family and Community Medicine, served as a panelist with Butch Kovacic. They both took part in the second session in the series as well on July 29.
Kelsey Logan Serves as President-Elect of Ohio Chapter of the AAP
Kelsey Logan, MD, MPH, director of the Division of Sports Medicine, recently began her two-year term as president-elect of the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The Ohio Chapter of the AAP promotes the health, safety, and well-being of children and adolescents by addressing the needs of children, their families, and their communities, and by supporting chapter members through advocacy, education, research, service, and improving the systems through which they deliver pediatric care.
Cincinnati Children’s Awards
2024 Arnold W. Strauss Fellow Awardees
Each year the Office of Pediatric Clinical Fellowships and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs award research grants to clinical fellows in any specialty at Cincinnati Children’s prior to their final year of fellowship training. The goal of the award is to provide research funds for clinical fellows to prepare for sustained research and extramural funding following the completion of their fellowship training.
- Strauss Research Fellow Awardees: Mahliyah Adkins-Threats, PhD; Ronaldo Morales, PhD; and Bailey Weatherbee, PhD
- Strauss Fellowship for Global Health Awardee: Catherine Brown, MD
- Strauss Clinical Fellowship Awardees: Morgan Drucker, MD; Cathrin Green, PhD; Nathan Lutz, PhD; and Bethany Verkamp, MD
Carolyn Stoll Nursing Research Fund Recipients
The Carolyn Stoll Nursing Research Fund was established in 1990 to honor Carolyn Stoll, a past vice president of the Division of Nursing (1982-1989) who believed that not only would nurses benefit from conducting research, but that their research would improve the lives of their patients. The award supports research studies, quality improvement and evidence-based practice projects that align with Cincinnati Children’s strategic plan. The recipients are:
- Zachary Paff, APRN, MSN, CPNP-AC/PC, advanced practice registered nurse, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (Mentor: Matthew Zackoff, MD, MEd)
- Siobhan Tellez, DNP, APRN, CPNC-PC, nurse practitioner, Endocrinology (Mentors: Deborah Elder, MD, and Sarah Corathers, MD)
- Lisa Schaaf, MSN, RN, CPNP-CP, nurse practitioner, Endocrinology (Mentor: Amy Shah, MD, MS)
Cincinnati Children’s Patient Services Research Grant
This award is for frontline nursing and allied health professionals employed by Patient Services and supports research studies that align with Cincinnati Children’s strategic plan. It is for research projects only. The recipients are:
- Grant Poston, PT, DPT, physical therapist II, Division of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy (Mentor: Christin Zwolski, PT, DPT, PhD)
- Elsie Bush, MS, OTRL, occupational therapist, Division of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy (Mentor: Karen Harpster, PhD, OTRL)
Gap Funding Award Recipients
The Cincinnati Children’s Gap Funding program provides one year of support to maintain R-level research programs at the NIH or the equivalent. The recent recipients are Mattia Quattrocelli, PhD, assistant professor, Molecular Cardiovascular Biology; Steve Danzer, PhD, associate professor, Anesthesia Research; Yan Xu, PhD, director, Bioinformatics Core, Neonatology & Pulmonary Biology, Perinatal Institute; and Greg Tiao, MD, director, Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, Frederick C. Ryckman Chair in Pediatric Surgery, surgical director, Liver Transplantation, and program director, Pediatric Surgery Fellowship.
Meredith Schuh Named Procter Scholar Award Recipient
The Procter Scholar Award is designed to provide research funds to junior faculty to aid in the rapid achievement of independent, sustained, extramural funding. Meredith Schuh, MD, nephrologist and assistant professor, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, was selected as the recent recipient.
Place Outcomes Research Awards
The Place Outcomes Research Awards (PORA) support and accelerate outcomes, health services, and implementation research at Cincinnati Children’s by funding studies to improve health and healthcare service delivery. The recent recipients are:
- Research Award–Katherine Auger, MD, MSc, professor and attending physician, Division of Hospital Medicine; and Lynn Babcock, MD, MS, professor and associate division director for research, Division of Emergency Medicine
- Young Investigator Diversity Research Award–Chineze Ebo, MD, clinical fellow, Division of Endocrinology; and John Feister, MD, MS, assistant professor and attending neonatologist, Division of Neonatal and Pulmonary Biology
- Access to Care Award–Claire Aarnio-Peterson, PhD, associate professor and pediatric psychologist in the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology and Eating Disorder Program; and Christy Zwolski, DPT, PhD, assistant professor and physical therapist, Division of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy
Research Innovation and Pilot (RIP) Funding Recipients
This funding program is for projects that are unusual (Innovation) or alternatively, are essential (Pilot) and are therefore good candidates for external funding after preliminary data has been obtained. The recent recipients are Tony De Falco, PhD, co-director, Reproductive Sciences Center; Michael Jankowski, PhD, Theodore W. Striker, MD, Chair in Anesthesia Research, professor and director of Research, Department of Anesthesia; Jianqiang Wu, MD, MS, Division of Experimental Hematology & Cancer Biology, Cancer Biology and Neural Tumors Program; James Greenberg, MD, professor and co-director, Perinatal Institute; and Stephen Becker, PhD, psychologist, Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, director of Research, Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, and co-director, Center for ADHD.
Richard Ittenbach Named Academic and Research Committee Award Recipient
The Academic and Research Committee supports initial development of significant multi-disciplinary programs that can become self-sustaining within three years. The recent recipient is Richard Ittenbach, PhD, professor, Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.
Trustee Grant Award Recipients
The goal of the Trustee Grant Award is to provide research funds for junior faculty to aid in the rapid achievement of independent, sustained extramural funding for their research program. The award recipients are Courtney Jones, PhD, assistant professor and member of both the Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology and the Advanced Leukemia Therapies and Research Center; and Ronald Panganiban, PhD, assistant professor and member of the Division of Asthma Research.
Recent Grants
The following researchers received grants near or above $1 million from April 1 to June 30, 2024.
Amal Assa’ad, MD, associate director of the Division of Allergy and Immunology, received a one-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the Consortium of Food Allergy Research Clinical Research Center and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Marc Rothenberg, MD, director of the Division of Allergy and Immunology, is the co-PI. Learn more.
Nurit Azouz, PhD, assistant professor, Division of Allergy and Immunology, received a five-year, $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study the role of serpins and LRP1 in the esophageal epithelium during eosinophilic esophagitis. Learn more.
Elisa Boscolo, PhD, associate professor, Experimental Hematology & Cancer Biology, received a one-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute to study Pathogenesis of Vascular Anomalies with GNAQ mutations. Learn more.
Lee Denson, MD, professor and director of the Schubert-Martin Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, received a one-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study Genetic and Small Molecule Regulation of Mechanisms of Crohn’s Disease Stricture Formation. Learn more.
John Erickson, MD, PhD, co-director of the Center for Perinatal Immunity, received an 11-month, $3.1 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study sialylated antibody defense against intracellular infections. Learn more.
Leighton Grimes, PHD, director, Cancer Pathology Program, Division of Experimental Hematology and Division of Pathology, and co-leader, Program in Hematologic Malignancies of the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute, received a one-year, $3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study modeling myelodysplasia. Learn more.
Michael Jankowski, PhD, professor, Anesthesia, received an 11-month, $2.6 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study Sensitization of developing senosry neurons after infection. Learn more.
Avani Modi, PhD, pediatric psychologist, Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, and interim division director, Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, received an 11-month, $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a Phase 3 clinical trial of an e-health behavioral intervention to improve executive functioning in adolescents with epilepsy. Learn more.
Paul Spearman, MD, vice chair of Clinical and Translational Research and Education, Department of Pediatrics, and Infectious Diseases professor, received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study viral and cellular determinants of HIV-1 assembly and define important pathways that allow infectious HIV particles to assemble. Learn more.
Max Warner, assistant vice president, Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation, received a one-year, $4 million grant from the state of Ohio for the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Sing Sing Way, MD, PhD, professor and Pauline and Lawson Reed Chair, Division of Infectious Diseases, received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study parity, paternity and pregnancy outcomes. Pregnancy stimulates a variety of changes in women that promote optimal health for mother and child, and minimizing disorders like prematurity, preeclampsia and stillbirth. This application investigates retained changes in mothers after pregnancy that further reduce susceptibility to these disorders in subsequent pregnancies. Learn more.
Ge Zhang, MD, PhD, faculty member of the Division of Human Genetics, received an 11-month, $1.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study MOMI pilot epigenomics.
Don’t Miss a Post:
- Subscribe to the Research Horizons Newsletter
- Follow Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation on Twitter(X): @cincyresearch
