Children's Health Research

Emilie K. Grasset, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics 

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Dr. Emilie Grasset’s long-term objective is to uncover novel mechanisms underlying the pathology of Crohn’s disease (CD), a progressive incurable disease characterized by intestinal inflammation and complications that often require bowel resection surgery. CD is most often diagnosed in adolescence or early adulthood; the onset of CD in children usually predicts a more aggressive disease course. Dr. Grasset will identify novel therapeutic targets by focusing on two previously disconnected hallmarks of CD, both correlated with disease complications: expanded mesenteric adipose tissue – creeping fat – that wraps around the intestine, and anti-microbial antibodies.

Woan-Yu Lin, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Iliyan Iliev Lab

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Dr. Woan-Yu Lin’s research focuses on the impact of gut fungi on immune regulation and neurological disorders, with implications for conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Using innovative models of fungal colonization, her work has discovered a link between immunodeficiency and OCD-like symptoms in mice. This work also shows that gut fungal dysbiosis can drive compulsive behaviors independently of bacterial factors. These findings highlight the mycobiota’s role in mental health and point toward potential new therapies targeting fungal elements for treating OCD and other disorders.

Andrea Temkin-Yu, Psy.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry
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Dr. Andrea Temkin-Yu’s research aims to increase access to evidence-based strategies to support individuals struggling with perinatal mental health difficulties. She is currently running a pilot trial of the Maya App: Perinatal Skills Program, an app-based tool that teaches skills to manage anxiety and low mood. This research will shed light on the feasibility and acceptability of the Perinatal Skills Program and help inform future iterations of this tool. The goal is to create an easy-to-use, effective and accessible program for expectant and new parents in hopes of improving outcomes for the individual, fetus, infant and entire family system.

Jimin Lee, M.D., M.S.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
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Dr. Jimin Lee’s overarching research objective is to develop and implement a novel, family-centered intervention that enhances communication between inpatient medical teams and caregivers of children with medical complexity during the transition from hospital to home. Pediatric hospital discharge is a critical period for all children, particularly those with medical complexity. Dr. Lee is currently working on understanding the context and identifying the current barriers that caregivers encounter. Her research aims to improve the quality of care and clinical outcomes for children with medical complexity."

Simone Caielli, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Immunology Research in Pediatrics
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Dr. Simone Caielli’s research aims to find novel pathogenic players and therapeutic targets, thus improving the clinical outcomes and quality of life of children suffering from rheumatic diseases, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). His studies are focused on how dysfunctions of mitochondria and cytosolic organelles might be related to the pathogenesis of pediatric SLE. Uncovering how mitochondrial and immune cell dysfunction are interconnected and how these are associated with the pathogenesis of pediatric SLE will help doctors better manage this disease and may lead to new treatments.

Andrea F. Heras, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
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Dr. Andrea Heras’s research aims to find novel therapies to minimize chronic lung disease in premature infants which often leads to long-term consequences such as impaired lung growth, asthma and early development of chronic pulmonary diseases. She is currently studying if and how sphingolipids in premature infants are related to the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia and the detection of markers to predict disease severity. Uncovering the differences in premature lungs will help to determine which children are most at risk and may lead to new therapies for chronic lung disease prevention.

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Jihye Kim, M.D.
Instructor in Psychiatry
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Dr. Jihye Kim’s research objective is to understand the molecular and neural circuit mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder (OCSD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Currently, she processes data using sophisticated mathematical modeling to help characterize the development of pathologically compulsive behaviors, such as repetitive movements. She will then observe how different pharmacological interventions in specific brain areas can improve these behaviors. She hopes this work will help identify novel drug targets to help children and adolescents with OCSD and ASD.

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Serena Lucotti, M.Sc., D.Phil.
Postdoctoral Associate in Pediatrics
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Dr. Serena Lucotti’s research focuses on thromboembolism, the obstruction of a blood vessel by a blood clot dislodged from another site in the circulation. Although we know children with cancer are 25 times more likely to develop this medical condition, there are currently no biomarkers to help identify at-risk patients who would benefit from preventative therapy. Dr. Lucotti’s work is aimed at studying how exosomes, small cell-derived vesicles circulating in the bloodstream, contribute to blood clot formation in pediatric cancer patients. Her work is also focused onto identifying exosome protein biomarkers to predict and prevent thromboembolism in children and young adults, thus improving their clinical outcomes and quality of life.

Jennifer Bress, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry
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Dr. Bress' research focuses on understanding the electrical signals in the brain that characterize anxiety, depression and their response to treatment in individuals across the lifespan. Using knowledge gained from this research, Dr. Bress aims to refine depression and anxiety treatments to be more efficient and more effective. She is currently working on a study comparing strategies for enhancing treatment engagement among adolescents and young adults who are using a mobile psychotherapy app called Maya to treat anxiety.

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Emily Wasserman, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
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Dr. Emily Wasserman’s research aims to understand how respiratory viruses drive critical illness in children. Her current research looks at the immune mechanisms underlying multi-system inflammatory disease in children (MIS-C), a rare but severe condition related to SARS-CoV2 infection. Dr. Wasserman is performing a comprehensive analysis of immune cells from children with MIS-C, both at the peak of illness and during disease recovery. She will compare immune cell activity and gene expression of children with MIS-C to children who had asymptomatic SARS-CoV2 infection. Uncovering the differences in response to SARS-CoV2 infection will help to determine which children are most at risk for MIS-C and may eventually lead to new therapies to prevent and treat SARS-CoV2 related illness in children.

Avital Falk, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry
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Dr. Avital Falk’s work focuses on novel ways to increase access to evidence-based services for anxiety and depression in youth. She is working on Maya, an app-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program, and her team’s research with Maya focuses on examining how to engage youth with anxiety and depression, and how to tailor state-of-the-art, evidence-based treatment to individual needs.

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Jacqueline Gofshteyn, M.D.
Instructor in Pediatrics
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Dr. Jacqueline Gofshteyn’s research aims to understand the immune mechanisms underlying pediatric rheumatologic and neurologic diseases. Her current research is focused on identifying immune biomarkers for disease activity in juvenile dermatomyositis, a disease that can leave children with profound muscle weakness, rash and multiple organ failure. To identify biomarkers, Dr. Gofshteyn is looking at differences in cell types and gene expression found in children affected by juvenile dermatomyositis compared with healthy children or children with another autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus. Uncovering biomarkers for disease activity can help doctors better manage juvenile dermatomyositis and may eventually lead to new treatments.

Cori Green, M.D., M.Sc.
Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
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Dr. Green’s research is focused on integrating behavioral and mental health care into pediatric practice. Through studying, implementing and disseminating interventions that can improve the skills of pediatricians, they can be trained to play a more effective role in the mental health care system. Dr. Green will study the impact of a three-year longitudinal curriculum for pediatric trainees on trainees’ mental health care competence and practices and patients’ access to mental health care and outcomes.

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Matthew Scult, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate of Psychology in Psychiatry
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Dr. Scult’s primary research focus is understanding the neurobiology of resilience in adolescents and young adults. He is working to develop novel psychological interventions aimed at improving treatment of youth anxiety disorders. In his current project, Dr. Scult is using neuroimaging-based markers to identify personalized strategies that increase an adolescent’s or young adult’s engagement with digital mental health interventions that target anxiety.

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Matthew Smith-Raska, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
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Dr. Smith-Raska studies how a person’s life experiences such as stress, diet and exposure to medications or toxins cause abnormalities in germ cells (sperm and eggs), which then predispose their children and grandchildren to develop pediatric diseases such as autism and congenital cardiac disease. Dr. Smith-Raska is working to define a cellular signaling pathway that he hypothesizes is critical to explaining how environmental experiences and exposures are processed into stable, inheritable modifications in sperm and eggs.

Shannon Bennett, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry

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Avital Falk, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry

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Faith Gunning, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry
Vice Chair for Research and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry

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Rebecca Jones, Ph.D. '12

Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in Psychiatry

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Conor Liston, M.D. '08, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Feil Family Brain & Mind Research Institute
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

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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.

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Perdita Permaul, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
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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.

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Amy Tsou, M.D., Ph.D.
Instructor in Pediatrics
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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.

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Melody Zeng, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Immunology in Pediatrics
Member, Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health
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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.