February 2, 2016

8515Drzoghbi175Dr. Huda Zoghbi, director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s, will receive this year’s prestigious Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal for her pioneering advancements in neuroscience research.

The National Academy of Science (NAS) presents this award every two years for outstanding research in the medical sciences. The Kovalenko Fund was gifted by Michael S. Kovalenko in 1949 in memory of his wife, Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko. For the last 63 years, the NAS has chosen distinguished scientists who have made landmark discoveries in medical research to receive this medal.

“Zoghbi unraveled the molecular basis of Spinocerebellar ataxia and Rett syndrome, providing novel insight into the pathogenesis of a broad range of neurologic disorders,” NAS Home Secretary Susan R. Wessler said. “Over the years, she has received numerous awards and prizes that honor her leadership in neuroscience research and exemplary mentorship to young neuroscientists. We couldn’t be more excited about this latest award. Her research initiatives have provided much needed rays of hope for many patients and their families.”

Zoghbi, who is a professor of molecular and human genetics, pediatrics, neurology and neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine, has made several seminal discoveries in diverse areas of neuroscience. Her work has significantly furthered our understanding of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders and revealed novel strategies to reverse these conditions. In addition, her forays in basic developmental neurobiology have led to important insights in a broad range of conditions from hearing loss to colon cancer.

Among her many scientific accomplishments, Zoghbi is widely recognized for her pioneering work on Rett syndrome, a form of autism common among girls. In 1999, she and her colleagues discovered that Rett syndrome is caused by loss-of-function mutations in the X-linked gene MeCP2 (methyl-CpG-binding protein 2) which established it as the first autism spectrum disorder that is largely caused by sporadic gene mutations. She would go on to demonstrate that the brain is exquisitely sensitive to levels of what she terms the “goldilocks” protein, MeCP2, and that doubling MeCP2 levels causes another devastating neurological syndrome among boys.

Recently, her lab showed that using small antisense oligonucleotides to normalize MeCP2 levels in the brain reversed the debilitating symptoms of MeCP2 duplication syndrome in a mouse models of that disease.

Zoghbi will receive the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal on Sunday, May 1, at the National Academy of Science’s 153rd Annual Meeting.

2316DrJacotinside175Bioengineers at Texas Children’s Hospital and Rice University have won a National Institutes of Health grant to develop a new generation of patches to repair the damaged hearts of infants.

The $1.9 million, 5-year grant will allow Jeffrey Jacot and his team to take the next steps in a long-running drive to improve the survival rates of such infants, many of whom are diagnosed in utero and require surgery soon after birth.

Jacot, who has appointments at Rice and Texas Children’s, and his colleagues will test patches that encourage a child’s own heart cells to invade and, over time, regenerate tissue to repair birth defects.

The multilayer patches include a rudimentary preformed vasculature – a blood-vessel system – that encourages cells to migrate. Over time, as the cells form organ tissue, the patches degrade and leave the body. The new tissue will ideally grow with the heart and have no fibrous scar that could interfere with its normal operation.

“Our goal is to have something that blends in with the tissue, so you can’t tell it’s a patch,” Jacot said. “It grows with the rest of the heart, and you don’t have these issues that you have with a piece of plastic.”

Jacot said cell survival in forming tissue has limited the effectiveness of such scaffolds until now. “We think if it has a good vasculature, it can recruit the cells that it needs,” he said. Preliminary studies show the immature vasculature hooks into the heart’s existing system “fairly quickly without needing to be surgically attached,” he said.

The study initially will be geared toward infants who suffer from Tetralogy of Fallot, a birth defect in which blood bypasses the lungs. The problem occurs in 4.7 of every 10,000 infants born in the United States. Cell-free patches are currently used to repair the damage, but they neither degrade nor grow with the infant and often need to be replaced, Jacot said.

“The surgeons we work with feel like there needs to be something better,” Jacot said. “What they see is that 10 to 20 percent of patches need to be replaced over time for various reasons, like if it has a severe strain or calcifies.”

The proposed new patches consist of a polyurethane core strong enough to handle sutures and the constant stress provided by a beating heart, surrounded by a porous gel that will welcome cells from neighboring heart tissue.

The lab had already derived endothelial cells and mesenchymal stem cells from amniotic fluid stem cells and determined that combining them in a hydrogel scaffold induces the formation of a rudimentary vascular structure. The use of readily available amniotic stem cells from a newborn’s own mother cuts the risk of tissue rejection, Jacot said.

2316HoustonMarathonEliteRunners640Five elite U.S. marathon runners – four of whom are competing in the Olympic trials – visited patients on January 28 in West Tower.

Sponsored by the Houston Marathon Foundation, the event brightened the day of several patients in the Inpatient Rehabilitation, Orthopedic Surgery, General Surgery and Transplant units.

The runners – Jarrett LeBlanc, Josh Dedering, Biya Simbasson, Emily Gordon and Becky Wade – passed out Houston Marathon and Half Marathon medals, shook hands and played with the patients while encouraging them to lead a healthy lifestyle.

A good way to do that is to sign up for the fourth annual Texas Children’s Hospital and Houston Marathon Foundation Family Fun Run, an event designed to educate and encourage Houston-area children and their families to adopt active, healthy lifestyles.

Families with children of all abilities are invited to participate in the run at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 9 at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus.

The Family Fun Run will include both a 1K and 3K course. Participants – including those who need walkers and wheelchairs – are welcome. There will not be prizes given to top finishers as all participants will receive an award for taking part in an event designed to educate and encourage Houston-area families to adopt active, healthy lifestyles. Following the run, families can enjoy the H-E-B sponsored Family Fun Zone. The zone will be packed with snacks, special guests and more than 25 attractions.

Click here to register. Registration will close on Monday, March 28.

Additional information, including training guides, a video from last year’s event and volunteer opportunities can be found here.

2316SIUgrant640

Texas Children’s is set to receive a $1 million grant from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to put toward its newly constructed Special Isolation Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. The funds, to be delivered during the next five years, will specifically go toward Ebola preparedness activities that bolster employee safety and quality of care.

Texas Children’s began ramping up its Ebola preparedness and decided to build a special isolation unit almost a year ago, shortly after an unprecedented outbreak of the disease resulted in the realization that we must be prepared to handle emerging infections as an institution. As a result, the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designated Texas Children’s Hospital as one of several pediatric Ebola treatment centers countrywide.

Texas Children’s Special Isolation Unit is the only one of its kind in Texas and the southwest region, and is among the few in the United States designated just for children. Located on the fifth floor of West Campus, the eight-bed unit is fully equipped to care for any infant or child with a serious communicable disease and has all of the measures available to assure safety of the health care team, other patients and their families.

As a condition of the DSHS grant, members of the National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC) – created to ensure health care providers and facilities are prepared to safely identify, isolate, transport and treat patients with Ebola and other emerging threats. – recently visited the Special Isolation Unit. During NETEC’s two-day trip, members of the newly formed federal entity toured the Special Isolation Unit and spoke with leaders in detail about the formation of the unit, its capabilities and its potential usages.

“We were glad to have subject matter expertise tour our facility and provide knowledge and insight that will help us improve patient and staff satisfaction,” said Special Isolation Unit Medical Director Dr. Gordon Schutze. “They were very complimentary of the unit and told us we were fortunate to have leadership that is very supportive of doing what is best for their employees and patients.”

Once received, a portion of the DSHS grant will be used to compensate Texas Children’s for the Ebola preparedness activities undertaken since July 2014. Unit and West Campus leaders are working together to identify the best use of the remaining funds and how they can be invested to better health care professional safety and quality of care.