Research Bulletin
News from the Child Health Research Institute
November 2021
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Develops Research Track
A core part of CHRI’s mission is to develop premier investigators, including physician-scientists, who will drive innovative pediatric research and become leaders in their fields. Sidharth Mahapatra, MD, PhD, research director for the division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM), knows firsthand the complexity and pressures of early stages in this career track.
 
“Aside from determining how best to launch their research careers, an early-career faculty member is new to their field of specialty or subspecialty and is trying their best to juggle multiple priorities, such as fulfilling their clinical responsibilities, developing their clinical acumen, figuring out their medical system and settling down in their community,” he explains, “During this busy and often chaotic time, an early-career faculty member might feel overwhelmed with the prospects of also starting their research careers. Close and sustained guidance and mentorship are vital at this stage to ensure they are given the needed tools, contacts, time and support to help launch their scientific careers.”
 
Dr. Mahapatra has been mapping out a research track to guide young investigators on this journey, polishing it with feedback from established critical care physician-scientists at several other institutions. On Sept. 28, Dr. Mahapatra shared a synopsis of this track in his presentation, “A Pathway to Research Independence,” at the monthly Pediatrics division chiefs meeting. The PCCM Research Track targets five objectives:
 
  1. Provide a framework for young investigators to follow during their early research career.
  2. Define specific deliverables that will help achieve academic success.
  3. Provide division and departmental leadership with objective measures to help protect young investigators’ time to pursue research.
  4. Define the expectations for promotion of research faculty.
  5. Align talents, training and effort with career goals.
 
The Research Track envisions that each investigator will take stock of their own interests, gather feedback from divisional and departmental leaders and craft their own pathway. The PCCM Research Track urges them to reach outside of the institution and consult with pediatric intensivists who have found sustained success in basic or clinical research. It also advises on how to identify established researchers around the UNMC campus who may have overlapping interests and how to ask about the possibility of partnership and mentorship in their labs. The investigator seeks out experienced researchers to serve as advisors on their mentoring committee.
 
The Research Track breaks each investigator’s pathway into four main phases or steps, each matched with a distinct set of deliverables. For instance, deliverables during Step 1 (first year) include writing a project narrative, assembling a mentoring committee, establishing an environment for the project and submitting an intramural grant. In comparison, deliverables during Step 3 (years 4-5) signify more momentum. Among these are formal research presentations (at national meetings, invited talks or Grand Rounds); achieving research funding through intramural, foundation or K-award grants; and publication of manuscripts.
 
Seeing the value of a program that helps young faculty make detailed and well-supported plans for their research, CHRI and Department of Pediatrics leaders plan to evaluate how the PCCM program could be implemented across the organization.
icy-branch-header.jpg
We Need Your Donations for
Our Winter Clothing Drive
The cold and wind have arrived, and area kids need winter clothes, coats and other items to get through this winter. The Department of Pediatrics and CHRI are collecting needed items for the approaching winter These donations will benefit children in the community organizations we partner with, including NorthStar, Completely Kids and Girls Inc.
 
Items that the organizations have asked us to collect for children/teens and their families:
  • New or gently used winter coats/puffer coats* (all sizes)
  • New or gently used warm jackets* (all sizes)
  • New or gently used hoodies (all sizes)*
  • New boys/men boxers – any color/print (boys sizes S-XL and men’s sizes S-XXL)
  • New boys/men socks (NorthStar looking for no show and regular in black & white boys sizes S-XL and men’s sizes S-XL)
  • New or gently used winter gloves and hats (all sizes)
  • Feminine hygiene products (Girls Inc.)
 
Please bring your items to the bins located in the Pediatrics Department in University Tower (UT5134) on UNMC’s campus and the common/lunch area immediately off the elevators in Indian Hills West, fifth floor, on the Children’s campus.
 
To donate funds to this clothing drive so the department/CHRI representatives can purchase clothing on your behalf, please visit https://app1.unmc.edu/forms/chri/coats/. There is a 2.75% non-refundable convenience fee.
 
We will collect items until Friday, Dec. 31.  
 
*** The links provided below offer visuals of types of coats preferred by NorthStar students and the relevant sizes they are hoping to collect this winter. Used variations of these will also be appreciated. Monetary donations to the drive will be used to purchase some of these wish list items.
 
Bubble puffer coats* sizes needed: 10-12, 14-16
 
Men's Sherpa hoodies* sizes S, M, L, XL
 
Puffer jacket* ages 9-10, ages 11-12
 
For questions or concerns, please reach out to Jackie Ostronic.
How CHRI Can Impact the
Research Interests of Medical Students
CHRI Priorities & Activities:
Update from Executive Director Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD
This November gives us the gift of being able to celebrate all of our hard work associated with the CHRI Pfizer COVID-19 study, thanks to the release of the vaccine for pediatric patients ages 5-11. We are thrilled to see the joy on patients’, parents’ and families’ faces as these children can finally enjoy the protection from COVID-19 infection that older children and adults have been granted for months now. It takes a huge amount of work, and all hands were really on deck for this endeavor. Congratulations to Dr. Simonsen, the rest of the co-investigators and the whole CHRI team for making this happen here at UNMC and Children’s. We did it! We are eagerly awaiting the approval for the 6-month to 4-year age group as data continues to be evaluated.
 
We continue to be busy at CHRI, having enrolled our 700th subject of the year recently. We are excited that our coordinator bandwidth is improving with the addition of two research assistants, who are offloading more of the office tasks of research, leaving the coordinators available to work on study start-up enrollment and management. Thank you for being patient with us as we worked our way through a very busy summer and early fall supporting the Pfizer vaccine study.
 
Please continue to utilize the study intake form for all of your proposed studies, and we will work to get them evaluated and onboarded as soon as possible! If you need to look for funding sources for these studies, consider the CHRI internal grants and watch the CHRI announcements by email. Matt Sandbulte, CHRI’s scientific writer, also maintains a Child Health Grants announcement page and can help you to search for extramural RFAs if you give him specific topics of interest. In the current science research environment, be prepared to submit and resubmit grants to eventually receive funding. The CHRI team is here to support you in this work, and don’t forget about the Pediatric Writing Group that is available to review and advise on grants, abstracts and papers.
 
University of Nebraska Collaboration Initiative Update
CHRI had a successful time engaging with scientists from UNL and UNO at the collaboration initiative. The day started with an engaging keynote address, “Expertise, Altruism and Self Scrutiny: Navigating Risk and Uncertainty,” by Jeffrey Gold, MD, Executive Vice President and Provost, University of Nebraska and Chancellor, UNMC. His remarks were inspiring and set the tone for a successful day marked by engagement, the exchange of knowledge and the formation of new ideas and new teams. CHRI members in attendance met with others from the NU system in small group. Topics, including, but not limited to:
  • Maternal fetal health
  • Mental health
  • Gut microbiome
  • Viral diseases
  • Education and well-being of children
  • Pharmaceutical availability to treat and prevent disease
  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • Training for public health/medical needs (pandemics and WMD events)
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Racial equity and justice
  • Cancer prevention and treatment strategies
 
The Maternal Fetal Health group met and had about a dozen participants from UNMC, UNL and UNO, with such varied backgrounds as chemistry, artificial intelligence, pediatric orthopedic surgery, nutrition, U.S. government policy, public health, anesthesia, counseling, epidemiology and neonatology. The robust conversation started with a short introduction by each faculty member about their research and their potential contributions to a project, and the conversation generalized to topics of mutual interest, including intrauterine status, the placenta and maternal nutrition’s impact on health.
 
Three different collaborations were formed, and grants from these projects will be submitted at each of the available funding levels.
 
Of note, funding pay lines were announced for the 2020-2021 initiative at 100%, 67% and 66% for the $7,500, $40,000 and $150,000 levels respectively. Very few internal or extramural award mechanisms will offer such generous opportunities for successful funding. We are hopeful that the CHRI member submissions for the 2021-2022 academic year will have similar success. The current RFA period also has award levels at $7,500 (Team Formation and Publication Grants [1-year]), $40,000 (Preliminary Data and Application Preparation Grants [1-year]) and $150,000 (Team Seed Grants [2-year]).
 
CHRI is proud to recognize all of our service members, former military members and military families. We wish you the best and thank you for your service.
 
We also wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.
 
Sincerely,
 
Ann 
UNMC Core Facility Profile:
The Center for Reducing Health Disparities
Tari Rose, Office Associate II at the College of Public Health and the Center for Reducing Health Disparities (The Center) provided answers to our questions about The Center and how CHRI investigators can engage with its offerings.
 
Tell us a bit about the Center.
 
The Center was given the Harrison Spencer Award for Outstanding Community Service from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, making the College of Public Health the third public health program in the entire nation to ever receive this prestigious award. This great honor to our College also serves as a testament of the scope and impact of our Center’s accomplishments in community outreach, services and community-engaged research over the years. Our Center has been proactive and effective in reaching out to local communities to help address some of their emerging health needs during the pandemic.
 
If an investigator wants to learn more about the Center in connection with research projects, what is a good way of getting needed information?
 
The Center routinely works with faculty from across UNMC and other University of Nebraska campuses to develop research protocols that are culturally and linguistically competent. The Center assists as a primary partner with faculty and departments in the development stage of research proposals. Furthermore, the Center provides an English-Spanish translation service for IRB-approved research documents. The best way of getting needed information is to contact the office at the primary number, 402-559-9660, and you will be directed to the correct faculty/research personnel in the Center. You may also visit our website at www.unmc.edu/publichealth.
 
What are some common questions you get about the Center and what are the answers to those questions?
 
The one question I hear constantly is, “What is the Center and what services do you provide?” I proceed to explain the Center’s vision and mission statement.
 
Vision of the Center – To become a nationally recognized Center of Excellence for promoting health equity through quality research, education, and community engagement.
 
Mission of the Center – To promote equity and social justice in health and healthcare by leading collaborative efforts to generate and disseminate evidence-based, policy-relevant solutions.
 
What is the main thing you hope readers take away from your profile in the CHRI Research Bulletin about the Center for Reducing Health Disparities?
 
The Center looks forward to our continuous partnerships to promote health equity and social justice in Nebraska and beyond in the years ahead.
Meet a Fellow CHRI Member
Corey Hopkins, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at UNMC.
 
What is your current primary area of research?
 
I am a medicinal chemist, and my primary research interests are related to the design, synthesis and optimization of biologically active small molecules as in vivo probes, drug discovery lead compounds and preclinical candidates. We are currently working in a variety of therapeutic areas: cancer, infectious diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and pain.
 
Please share information on a current research project. 
 
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting the central nervous system and represents the paradigm of a larger group of conditions known as movement disorders. The primary motor disturbances in PD are due to the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra projecting their axons to the striatum. Accordingly, the mainstay of PD treatment is the dopamine (DA) precursor levodopa (L-DOPA), which, however, leads to significant complications with extended use. The development of abnormal involuntary movements termed L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias (LID) represents a major dose-limiting adverse effect. Dyskinesias ultimately affects greater than 85 percent of PD patients, and motor fluctuations will affect greater than 90 percent of PD patients. Moreover, LIDs are associated with neuropsychiatric complications that include psychotic reactions and impulsive-compulsive behaviors. There are no effective treatments for either preventing the development of LIDs or reversing already established ones in PD patients.
 
My laboratory has developed numerous drug-like compounds that have shown excellent potency and selectivity as dopamine receptor 4 antagonists. Evaluation of the lead compound in a mouse model of PD showed drastic reduction of global AIMs score in a dose-dependent manner. We are currently optimizing these compounds to hopefully benefit PD patients in the future.
 
What has been the primary benefit of CHRI membership?
 
The primary benefit of member is finding outstanding collaborators to help us investigate novel mechanisms for drug discovery and grant support to further expand our laboratory into new areas of discovery.
Timothy Nelson, PhD, RN, is a professor of psychology and associate director of the Rural Drug Addiction Research (RDAR) Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
 
What is your current primary area of research? 
 
My research focuses on issues in pediatric health neuroscience. Specifically, we examine the interplay between cognitive development (particularly executive control) and key health behaviors (diet, sleep, physical activity, substance use, etc.) within developmental and environmental context.
 
Please share information on a current research project.
 
Much of our current research involves following a sample of approximately 300 families, who were originally recruited when the target child was in preschool, and tracking the kids through childhood and now adolescence. The project focuses on the role of early and ongoing executive control development in predicting key health behaviors (particularly diet, sleep, physical activity and substance use) and outcomes (including weight status and mental health problems) in adolescence. We have a multimodal data collection protocol that includes lab-based neuropsychological tasks and questionnaires, out-of-lab actigraphy and dietary recall measures and environmental geocoding. In addition to the adolescent protocol, when participants turn 19 years of age, they become eligible for the new young adult phase, which includes fMRI data collection focusing on neural vulnerabilities for obesity.
 
What has been the primary benefit of CHRI membership?
 
Being a member of CHRI is great for learning about child health research being conducted within the Nebraska University system and for identifying possible collaborators for future studies.
Thank you Drs. Hopkins and Nelson for your time and responses. At this time, we are randomly selecting the members to be profiled, but if you would like to be featured, please email chri@unmc.edu.
PRO Education Committee Tip of the Month:
Research Study Agreements
A Data Use Agreement (DUA) refers to a legal contract concerning the transfer of human subject data which includes PHI (typically but not exclusively in the form of a Limited Data Set).
Limited data sets may include only the following identifiers:
  • Dates such as date of birth, admission, discharge, or service
  • City, state, and/or zip code (with street address removed)
  • Age
  • Any other unique code or identifier that is not listed as a direct identifier

A Data Transfer Agreement (DTA) is a legal contract governing the transfer of non-human subject data or completely de-identified human subject data.

A Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is a legal contract between a healthcare provider and an individual or organization that will receive access to, transmit, or store Protected Health Information (PHI) as part of its services for the provider.

A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) is a contract that governs the transfer of materials between institutions for use in research.
Disseminating Discoveries:
September Publications
Take a minute to check out the wide range of research published by CHRI members in October.
Funding Opportunities:
UNMC College of Medicine
Eugene Kenney Memorial Fund (for asthma research)
Email Jen Brady: jen.brady@unmc.edu
$15k for 1 year
Due 8AM on December 3, 2022

Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation
Request for Proposals Addressing Access to Care (mental health care for children and adolescents)
$50k/yr for 2 years
Due January 13, 2022

For more funding opportunities, please review the CHRI grant calendar available here.
Upcoming Events:

CHRI Seminar Series - November 19

Kishore Challagundla, PhD - SAP30, a Novel Drug Response Specific Oncogenic Transcription Factor in High-risk Neuroblastoma

Jesse E. Bell, PhD - Addressing Nebraska’s Environmental Health Challenges
Child Health Research Institute
986847 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68198-6847
402-559-4032 or 402-955-7907