January 19, 2016

12016CancerCenterresearchersinside640The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recognized three researchers from Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine for their work in advancing our understanding of disease pathogenesis and exploring novel innovative approaches for the treatment of pediatric cancers.

Dr. Rikhia Chakraborty, instructor of pediatrics and part of the Histiocytosis Research Lab at the Cancer Center, received a 2016 Basic Junior Faculty Scholar Award for her study investigating disease pathogenesis of Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, a disease that occurs when the body accumulates too many immature Langerhans cells, a type of white blood cell that normally helps the body fight infection. Scholar awards support fellow and junior faculty dedicated to careers in hematology research as they transition from training programs to careers as independent investigators. The award is for $150,000 over two to three years.

Dr. Maksim Mamonkin, a postdoctoral associate in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, received a 2016 Basic Research Fellow Scholar Award for his study on developing targeted therapy to treat T cell malignancies. This research award will provide $100,000 over two to three years and will support transition from training programs to an independent investigator career.

Dr. Rayne Rouce, instructor in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, has been named a 2016 award winner of the ASH and the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She delivered a presentation on her work, which focuses on immunotherapy for the treatment of pediatric cancer. She will also receive a $400,000, four-year grant to further her work.

January 12, 2016

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In support of Promise: The Campaign for Texas Children’s Hospital, Texas Children’s and ABC-13 have joined together to highlight amazing stories from the hospital. The stories – many of which will showcase the excellent work you do – will air at 6 p.m. on select weekdays and can be found on ABC-13’s website.

The goal of Promise is to raise $475 million to help the hospital address current challenges and anticipate patients’ needs now and in the future. The money will provide support for five key areas: expanding our critical, surgical and emergency care services through the construction of the new Pediatric Tower, construction of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, establishment of endowed chairs, ongoing support for our divisions and centers of excellence, and charity care.

As employees of Texas Children’s, you too can help us offer hope, comfort and healing to children in this community and around the world by making a promise of your own. Until November 27, ABC-13 will match individual donations to the campaign dollar for dollar up to $100,000. Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to double your gift and further change the lives of children in our community and beyond.

Donate today! To learn more about Promise, click here.

11316perioperativeinside640If you ask Nakeisha Archer, president-elect of the Greater Houston Chapter of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), who inspired her to pursue nursing, there’s one person who comes to mind – her grandmother.

“When I was a little girl, my grandmother shared stories about how she loved taking care of patients in their homes,” Archer said. “She was a private duty nurse and the joy she derived from helping others motivated me to become a nurse.”

After graduating from nursing school with several clinical rotations under her belt, Archer spent six years as a labor and delivery nurse, which included a few years as a travel nurse. Before obtaining her MBA in health care management, she realized her niche was in the operating room (OR).

“I spent a lot of time in the OR as a labor and delivery nurse but I knew there was more to learn,” Archer said. “After completing a perioperative internship program, that’s when my passion for periop began.”

As assistant director of Perioperative Services at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, Archer leads a dynamic team of more than 40 nurses who assist with the planning, implementation and evaluation of patient care before, during and after surgery. These activities include patient assessment, creating and maintaining a sterile and safe surgical environment, providing pre- and post-operative patient education, monitoring the patient’s physical and emotional well-being and working closely with the surgical team to provide safe patient care during each phase of the surgical care process. Archer also collaborates with her non-nursing team whose roles are critical to the perioperative process. These include secretaries who schedule new cases, surgical technologists who scrub the cases, and perioperative care technicians and anesthesia technicians who provide specialized team support.

“Perioperative includes the entire surgical experience,” Archer said. “We see between 175 to 210 cases per month which include open, robotic and laparoscopic surgeries to treat a number of gynecological conditions including cancers, urological issues, as well as general surgery, fetal interventions, caesarean deliveries and in vitro fertilization procedures.”

The Pavilion for Women has four Main OR’s, two OR’s in labor and delivery, one procedure suite in the Main OR, and two procedure rooms in the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Clinic. Two more Pavilion for Women Main OR surgical suites will open in May 2016 bringing the total to six OR’s to meet the increasing demand for perioperative services.

Archer says the need to hire and retain experienced perioperative nurses to fill these new positions is one of her top priorities. She says the best way to home “grow” our nursing staff is by providing consistent educational tools and internship programs to cultivate their skills so they can easily adapt to this fast-growing nursing specialty.

“We have a lot of openings right now in periop on the Pavilion side because we’re growing,” Archer said. “Most hospitals that do not have a shortage of experienced OR nurses offer a consistent internship and residency program every six months. When you keep that pipeline going and keep those nurses coming in and consistently train them, they will be ready to be placed in their new roles.”

Since joining the Pavilion for Women two years ago, Archer is thrilled to offer the second perioperative internship program for nurses later this month. This endeavor, which will continue every six months, is part of a joint partnership with Texas Children’s Pediatric Perioperative Services.

When Archer assumes her position as AORN president in May, her passion to advance educational opportunities for nurses will be one of her primary goals.

“One of the things that I think we as leaders don’t always do is have a really good succession plan for our nurse leaders as well as our nurses who are leading at the bedside,” Archer said. “We need to provide them with opportunities to grow and re-energize their periop voices by engaging members around issues that impact them.”

Leading a multi-generational nursing workforce has become a tremendous challenge too. Archer plans to collaborate with nursing leaders to help reframe perceptions about generational differences and to view these attitudinal and behavioral differences as potential strengths.

While much of Archer’s day is spent attending meetings, rounding with nursing and physician staff and staying abreast of all the cases scheduled for each day, she says at the end of the day, her greatest joy is taking care of her patients – just like her grandmother did.

“On a really good day, I can go to our waiting area and have conversations with some of the patients and families, and make sure that things are going well,” Archer said. “That’s really the fun parts of the job. If we could do that all day, it would be really good.”

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From exploring the metabolic factors impacting egg quality to the genetics of embryo implantation, researchers at the Family Fertility Center at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women are engaged in several studies to help infertile couples achieve successful pregnancy outcomes.

For couples struggling to get pregnant, often times their only hope is through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in which a healthy embryo is transferred to the uterus for implantation. If the window of implantation has passed – the crucial time when the endometrium or inner uterine lining releases chemical signals that allow the embryo to attach – the chances of getting pregnant are very slim.

“Until now, the endometrium was kind of a black box,” said Dr. William Gibbons, director of the Family Fertility Center and chief of reproductive endocrinology at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. “While studies have been done on embryos, limited research has focused on the important role of endometrial receptivity prior to implantation. With advanced technology, we can uncover innovative techniques to improve IVF success rates.”

In collaboration with Dr. Carlos Simon from the University of Valencia, Spain, Drs. Gibbons, Paul Zarutskie and Cecilia Valdes are exploring the use of Endometrial Receptivity Array (ERA), a biopsy that analyzes the DNA patterns of more than 240 genes in the endometrium to determine when it is the most receptive to obtain a successful embryo transplant. For some women, this fertility window can be earlier or later than the typical window of implantation.

“The cells in the uterine lining are constantly changing,” Zarutskie said. “No matter how healthy the embryo appears, if the embryo transfer happens when the endometrium is not fully prepared or has passed its peak receptivity, implantation will not occur. In this study, approximately 70 percent of women who failed to get pregnant after an IVF transfer of a genetically normal embryo were not at the implantation window.”

In addition to ERA, Dr. Neil Chappell is spearheading a study to see if marker proteins in cervical mucus can evaluate the optimal timing of the implantation window.

“As the lining of the uterus changes in the phase where it receives the embryo, changes in the expression of genes and proteins are evaluated via ultrasound or by doing a biopsy of the endometrium,” Chappell said. “Hopefully by examining cervical mucus proteins, we can eventually develop assays that can be performed in the office in a matter of minutes through a very low risk procedure like a pelvic exam.”

Additional research studies are exploring the impact of metabolism on egg quality and development:

  • Drs. Amy Schutt, Cecilia Valdes, Chandra Yallampalli and Farook Jahoor will examine the effects of protein restriction on egg quality before pregnancy occurs. In rats, a diet low in protein appears to reduce the egg’s ability to protect itself from damage by affecting the metabolic pathway responsible for producing antioxidants. This study will determine whether a diet rich in protein optimizes egg health and development.
  • Drs. Schutt and Jahoor will investigate the effects of obesity on female fertility by studying the granulosa cells collected during IVF. These cells feed signals to the egg during the maturation process. Their hypothesis is that obesity-induced inflammation and oxidative stress markers are increased in obese women compared to normal weight women, which may affect female fertility.
  • Drs. Zarutskie and Jessie Rubin will examine the impact of insulin and carbohydrate metabolism on the well-being of women in general, and specifically on their potential for fertility. Previous studies show insulin resistance can be present in lean and obese women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, indicating other factors may impact the imbalance in the insulin/glucose mechanism.

For women diagnosed with cancer, deciding whether or not to proceed with fertility-saving procedures before chemotherapy or radiation treatment can be difficult.

Dr. Terri Woodard, a fertility specialist known for her extensive work in fertility preservation, is developing an interactive computer-based decision aid for women with cancer. The website’s content will be driven by patient feedback obtained from focus groups and individual qualitative interviews, as well as feedback from oncologists.

“The website will contain basic information about different options that are available to help patients navigate through this delicate process,” said Woodward, who also sees patients at MD Anderson. “Even if patients decide not to do anything about their fertility prior to cancer treatment, just addressing these quality of life issues is crucial to ensure they make the right decision. This tool will help in this process.”

While these are snippets of fascinating research underway, click here to learn more about our Family Fertility Center at the Pavilion for Women.

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Dr. Sundeep Keswani, pediatric surgeon, was chosen by the Association for Academic Surgery to receive the 2016 International Visiting Professorship Award to attend the Columbia Surgical Association Congress in Bogota, Colombia, in August 2016.

Keswani is the principal investigator for the Texas Children’s Laboratory for Regenerative Tissue Repair. His clinical interests are in fetal diagnosis and therapy, neonatal surgery, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation and pediatric wound care.

His National Institute of Health-funded laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of regenerative fetal tissue repair and is actively developing novel therapeutics to achieve postnatal regenerative wound healing.

January 5, 2016

1616TheCenter2Anniv640Texas Children’s Health Plan is thrilled to celebrate the one-year anniversary of The Center for Children and Women in Southwest Houston. Since opening its second location in November 2014, The Center has provided excellent comprehensive primary care for pediatric and obstetrics members of Texas Children’s Health Plan.

The Center provides state-of-the-art health care that integrates a wide variety of services in one location. Through a partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and UT School of Dentistry, services include pediatric and obstetrics/gynecology care, imaging, behavioral health services, dental, optometry, speech therapy and an onsite laboratory and pharmacy. By having all these services under one roof and offering extended hours, members can have all their healthcare needs met on the same day.

“Our extended hours and patient-centered approach means that more families have access to the highest quality care and improved health outcomes,” said Dr. Lisa Hollier, medical director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The Center for Children and Women. “Our team is so proud of the incredible impact we’ve had on our members in Southwest Houston.”

The Center has made quite an impact on the Southwest area by providing care to more than 5,890 patients in the last 12 months. This number includes more than 4,988 pediatric patients and 902 obstetric patients. Since opening, there have also been 356 births. The actual number of appointments in the past year may best demonstrate The Center’s true footprint in the community. That number totals more than 33,297 appointments in just 12 months.

“After one short year, it is exciting to see the number of families our amazing team has helped,” said Dr. Heidi Schwarzwald, medical director of Pediatrics at The Center for Children and Women. “I am so proud of the care that we offer and the way our team is always innovating to respond to the needs of the community.”

The Center also hosts a series of programs, including breastfeeding, car seat safety, healthy cooking, and exercise and nutrition classes that help educate the community and promote wellness.

“As I reflect on The Centers and the communities we serve, I am so grateful to be a part of such an amazing team who is making a difference and redefining healthcare for those often considered less fortunate,” said Tangula Taylor, director of Operations at The Center for Children and Women.

8515Drzoghbi175Dr. Huda Zoghbi, professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, and director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s, will be honored with the 2015 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science.

She is the 10th recipient of the award given by the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine to recognize women scientists with a stellar record of research accomplishment who have also mentored other women in science.

Prize winners receive an honorarium, deliver a Flexner Discovery Lecture, meet with Vanderbilt faculty and mentor Vanderbilt Prize Scholars – women who are pursuing graduate studies in the biomedical sciences at the medical school.

Zoghbi will receive the prize on April 21, 2016, when she is scheduled to give the Flexner Discovery Lecture at Vanderbilt.

“Huda Zoghbi’s progression from a young woman interested in science to one of the world’s foremost physician-scientists working on the genetic bases of neurological diseases is fascinating and inspiring,” said Dr. Lawrence Marnett, associate vice chancellor for research and senior associate dean for biomedical science, at Vanderbilt.

Zoghbi has been instrumental in finding the genes for Rett Syndrome, spinal cerebellar ataxia 1 and IMath1, which is essential for generation of inner ear hair cell.

She is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards throughout the years. She is committed to mentoring young scientists, and one-fourth of her former trainees are women.