Research
Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) is a global leader in pediatric health research.
- There are 34 open clinical trials in the Department of Pediatrics.
- WCM pediatrics faculty had 150 book chapters and articles published in peer-reviewed journals in 2017.
- 25 National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards were granted to 13 WCM pediatrics researchers between July 2017 and April 2018.
Children’s Health Investigators Fund Recipients
Each year, the Investigators Fund awards seed money to support three projects, providing early-career investigators with the resources needed to establish preliminary research results essential to qualify for substantial grants from the NIH. Below are the research projects the Investigators Fund has made possible.
Faith Gunning, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry
Vice Chair for Research and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry
Drs. Shannon Bennett, Avital Falk, Faith Gunning, Rebecca Jones and Conor Liston are bringing precision medicine to the treatment of anxiety and depression in youth. In partnership with The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the researchers use brain connectivity patterns to personalize app-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for adolescents. The team uses brain imaging to better understand whose symptoms improve with app-based CBT and whose persist.
Dr. Perdita Permaul is the principal investigator on a research project evaluating the role that body mass index (BMI) plays in the relationship between inflammation and asthma morbidity in an established cohort of urban children with asthma. The data collected through this research will reveal potential biomarkers linking obesity and asthma, thereby providing better insight into the connection between these two chronic diseases.
Dr. Amy Tsou’s research is focused on understanding how intestinal bacteria and the nervous system interact with the immune system, and how these interactions influence intestinal inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). She hopes to identify a new generation of therapies that can improve outcomes for the 1.6 million Americans – and 140,000 children – who suffer from this lifelong disease.
Melody Zeng, PhD
Assistant Professor of Immunology in Pediatrics
Member, Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health
The primary focus of research in Dr. Zeng’s laboratory is to study how gut immune cells and bacteria interact at the maternal-fetal/neonatal interface in the context of pediatric inflammatory diseases. The goal of the research is to develop strategies to use beneficial gut bacteria as candidates for maternal vaccinations to help protect babies from the type of inflammation that could lead to autoinflammatory diseases.
